If quarks are composite particles then excited states are expected. We have searched in pp¯ collisions for excited quarks (q*) which decay to common quarks by emitting a W boson (q*→qW) or a photon (q*→qγ). The simplest model of excited quarks has been excluded for mass M*<540 GeV/c2 at 95% confidence level.

The production of J/psi mesons is studied in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurement is based on a dimuon sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 314 inverse nanobarns. The J/psi differential cross section is determined, as a function of the J/psi transverse momentum, in three rapidity ranges. A fit to the decay length distribution is used to separate the prompt from the non-prompt (b hadron to J/psi) component. Integrated over J/psi transverse momentum from 6.5 to 30 GeV/c and over rapidity in the range |y| < 2.4, the measured cross sections, times the dimuon decay branching fraction, are 70.9 \pm 2.1 (stat.) \pm 3.0 (syst.) \pm 7.8(luminosity) nb for prompt J/psi mesons assuming unpolarized production and 26.0 \pm 1.4 (stat.) \pm 1.6 (syst.) \pm 2.9 (luminosity) nb for J/psi mesons from b-hadron decays.

Measurements of the differential production cross sections in transverse momentum and rapidity for B0 mesons produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented. The dataset used was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 40 inverse picobarns. The production cross section is measured from B0 meson decays reconstructed in the exclusive final state J/Psi K-short, with the subsequent decays J/Psi to mu^+ mu^- and K-short to pi^+ pi^-. The total cross section for pt(B0) > 5 GeV and y(B0) < 2.2 is measured to be 33.2 +/- 2.5 +/- 3.5 microbarns, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

Measurements of the total and differential cross sections with respect to transverse momentum and rapidity for B+ mesons produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5.8 inverse picobarns collected by the CMS experiment operating at the LHC. The exclusive decay B+ to J/psi K+, with the J/psi decaying to an oppositely charged muon pair, is used to detect B+ mesons and to measure the production cross section as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of the B. The total cross section for p_t(B) > 5 GeV and |y(B)| < 2.4 is measured to be 28.1 +/- 2.4 +/- 2.0 +/- 3.1 microbarns, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the last is from the luminosity measurement.

The production of Z bosons associated with jets is measured in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with data recorded with the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.3 fb$^{-1}$. The multiplicity of jets with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 30 GeV is measured for different regions of the Z boson's $p_\mathrm{T}$(Z), from lower than 10 GeV to higher than 100 GeV. The azimuthal correlation $\Delta \phi$ between the Z boson and the leading jet, as well as the correlations between the two leading jets are measured in three regions of $p_\mathrm{T}$(Z). The measurements are compared with several predictions at leading and next-to-leading orders, interfaced with parton showers. Predictions based on transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions and corresponding parton showers give a good description of the measurement in the regions where multiple parton interactions and higher jet multiplicities are not important. The effects of multiple parton interactions are shown to be important to correctly describe the measured spectra in the low $p_\mathrm{T}$(Z) regions.

The observation of the production of four top quarks in proton-proton collisions is reported, based on a data sample collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016-2018 at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with two same-sign, three, or four charged leptons (electrons and muons) and additional jets are analyzed. Compared to previous results in these channels, updated identification techniques for charged leptons and jets originating from the hadronization of b quarks, as well as a revised multivariate analysis strategy to distinguish the signal process from the main backgrounds, lead to an improved expected signal significance of 4.9 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. Four top quark production is observed with a significance of 5.6 standard deviations, and its cross section is measured to be 17.7 $^{+3.7}_{-3.5}$ (stat) $^{+2.3}_{-1.9}$ (syst) fb, in agreement with the available standard model predictions.

Production cross sections of $\Upsilon$(1S), $\Upsilon$(2S), and $\Upsilon$(3S) states decaying into $\mu^+\mu^-$ in proton-lead (pPb) collisions are reported using data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 5.02 TeV. A comparison is made with corresponding cross sections obtained with pp data measured at the same collision energy and scaled by the Pb nucleus mass number. The nuclear modification factor for $\Upsilon$(1S) is found to be $R_\mathrm{pPb}(\Upsilon(1S))$ = 0.806 $\pm$ 0.024 (stat) $\pm$ 0.059 (syst). Similar results for the excited states indicate a sequential suppression pattern, such that $R_\mathrm{pPb}(\Upsilon(1S))$$\gt$$R_\mathrm{pPb}(\Upsilon(2S))$$\gt$$R_\mathrm{pPb}(\Upsilon(3S))$. The suppression is much less pronounced in pPb than in PbPb collisions, and independent of transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\Upsilon$ and center-of-mass rapidity $y_\mathrm{CM}^\Upsilon$ of the individual $\Upsilon$ state in the studied range $p_\mathrm{T}^\Upsilon$$\lt$ 30 GeV$/c$ and $\vert y_\mathrm{CM}^\Upsilon\vert$$\lt$ 1.93. Models that incorporate sequential suppression of bottomonia in pPb collisions are in better agreement with the data than those which only assume initial-state modifications.

A measurement of the exclusive two-photon production of muon pairs in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)= 7 TeV, pp to p mu^+ mu^- p, is reported using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 40 inverse picobarns. For muon pairs with invariant mass greater than 11.5 GeV, transverse momentum pT(mu) > 4 GeV and pseudorapidity |eta(mu)| < 2.1, a fit to the dimuon pt(mu^+ mu^-) distribution results in a measured cross section of sigma(pp to p mu^+ mu^- p) = 3.38 [+0.58 -0.55] (stat.) +/- 0.16 (syst.) +/- 0.14 (lumi.) pb, consistent with the theoretical prediction evaluated with the event generator Lpair. The ratio to the predicted cross section is 0.83 [+0.14-0.13] (stat.) +/- 0.04 (syst.) +/- 0.03 (lumi.). The characteristic distributions of the muon pairs produced via photon-photon fusion, such as the muon acoplanarity, the muon pair invariant mass and transverse momentum agree with those from the theory.

We present the results of a search for the top quark in 19.3 pb−1 of p¯p collisions at √s =1.8 TeV. The data were collected at the Fermilab Tevatron collider using the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). The search includes standard model tt¯ decays to final states eeνν¯, eμνν¯, and μμνν¯ as well as e+ν+jets or μ+ν+jets. In the (e,μ)+ν+jets channel we search for b quarks from t decays via secondary vertex identification and via semileptonic decays of the b and cascade c quarks. In the dilepton final states we find two events with a background of 0.56−0.13+0.25 events. In the e,μ+ν+jets channel with a b identified via a secondary vertex, we find six events with a background of 2.3±0.3. With a b identified via a semileptonic decay, we find seven events with a background of 3.1±0.3. The secondary vertex and semileptonic-decay samples have three events in common. The probability that the observed yield is consistent with the background is estimated to be 0.26%. The statistics are too limited to firmly establish the existence of the top quark; however, a natural interpretation of the excess is that it is due to tt¯ production. We present several cross-checks. Some support this hypothesis; others do not. Under the assumption that the excess yield over background is due to tt¯, constrained fitting on a subset of the events yields a mass of 174±10−12+13 GeV/c2 for the top quark. The tt¯ cross section, using this top quark mass to compute the acceptance, is measured to be 13.9−4.8+6.1 pb.

A search for neutral Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM) decaying to tau-lepton pairs in pp collisions is performed, using events recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 24.6 fb$^{-1}$, with 4.9 fb$^{-1}$ at 7 TeV and 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ at 8 TeV. To enhance the sensitivity to neutral MSSM Higgs bosons, the search includes the case where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a b-quark jet. No excess is observed in the tau-lepton-pair invariant mass spectrum. Exclusion limits are presented in the MSSM parameter space for different benchmark scenarios, $m_\mathrm{h}^\text{max}$, $m_\mathrm{h}^{\text{mod}+}$, $m_\mathrm{h}^{\text{mod}-}$, light-stop, light-stau, $\tau$-phobic, and low-$m_\mathrm{H}$. Upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction for gluon fusion and b-quark associated Higgs boson production are also given.