A novel technique for measuring the mass of the top quark that uses only the kinematic properties of its charged decay products is presented. Top quark pair events with final states with one or two charged leptons and hadronic jets are selected from the data set of 8 TeV proton-proton collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. By reconstructing secondary vertices inside the selected jets and computing the invariant mass of the system formed by the secondary vertex and an isolated lepton, an observable is constructed that is sensitive to the top quark mass that is expected to be robust against the energy scale of hadronic jets. The main theoretical systematic uncertainties, concerning the modeling of the fragmentation and hadronization of b quarks and the reconstruction of secondary vertices from the decays of b hadrons, are studied. A top quark mass of 173.68 +/- 0.20 (stat) +1.58 -0.97 (syst) GeV is measured. The overall systematic uncertainty is dominated by the uncertainty in the b quark fragmentation and the modeling of kinematic properties of the top quark.

A measurement of the forward-backward asymmetry A[FB] of oppositely charged lepton pairs (mu mu and e e) produced via Z/gamma* boson exchange in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The measurement of A[FB] is performed for dilepton masses between 40 GeV and 2 TeV and for dilepton rapidity up to 5. The A[FB] measurements as a function of dilepton mass and rapidity are compared with the standard model predictions.

A measurement of the elliptic flow ($v_2$) of prompt J/$\psi$ mesons in high-multiplicity pPb collisions is reported using data collected by the CMS experiment at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 8.16 TeV. Prompt J/$\psi$ mesons decaying into two muons are reconstructed in the rapidity region in the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass frame ($y_\mathrm{cm}$), corresponding to either $-$2.86 $\lt y_{\mathrm{cm}} <$ $-$1.86 or 0.94 $\lt y_{\mathrm{cm}} <$ 1.94. The average $v_2$ result from the two rapidity ranges is reported over the transverse momentum (p$_\mathrm{T}$) range from 0.2 to 10 GeV. Positive $v_2$ values are observed for the prompt J/$\psi$ meson, as extracted from long-range two-particle correlations with charged hadrons, for 2 $\lt p_{\mathrm{T}}<$ 8 GeV. The prompt J/$\psi$ results are compared with previous CMS measurements of elliptic flow for open charm mesons (D$^0$) and strange hadrons. From these measurements, constraints can be obtained on the collective dynamics of charm quarks produced in high-multiplicity events arising from small systems.

Measurements of the differential and double-differential Drell-Yan cross sections in the dielectron and dimuon channels are presented. They are based on proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The measured inclusive cross section in the Z peak region (60-120 GeV), obtained from the combination of the dielectron and dimuon channels, is 1138 +/- 8 (exp) +/- 25 (theo) +/- 30 (lumi) pb, where the statistical uncertainty is negligible. The differential cross section d(sigma)/d(m) in the dilepton mass range 15 to 2000 GeV is measured and corrected to the full phase space. The double-differential cross section d2(sigma)/d(m)d(abs(y)) is also measured over the mass range 20 to 1500 GeV and absolute dilepton rapidity from 0 to 2.4. In addition, the ratios of the normalized differential cross sections measured at sqrt(s) = 7 and 8 TeV are presented. These measurements are compared to the predictions of perturbative QCD at next-to-leading and next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) orders using various sets of parton distribution functions (PDFs). The results agree with the NNLO theoretical predictions computed with FEWZ 3.1 using the CT10 NNLO and NNPDF2.1 NNLO PDFs. The measured double-differential cross section and ratio of normalized differential cross sections are sufficiently precise to constrain the proton PDFs.

A search is presented for decays beyond the standard model of the 125 GeV Higgs bosons to a pair of light bosons, based on models with extended scalar sectors. Light boson masses between 5 and 62.5 GeV are probed in final states containing four tau leptons, two muons and two b quarks, or two muons and two tau leptons. The results are from data in proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns, accumulated by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. No evidence for such exotic decays is found in the data. Upper limits are set on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for several signal processes. The results are also compared to predictions of two-Higgs-doublet models, including those with an additional scalar singlet.

A search for charged Higgs boson decaying to a charm and a bottom quark (H$^+\to$ c$\overline{\mathrm{b}}$) is performed using 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ of pp collision data at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV. The production mechanism investigated in this search is $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$ pair production in which one top quark decays to a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark and the other decays to a charged lepton, a neutrino, and a bottom quark. Charged Higgs boson decays to $\mathrm{c\overline{b}}$ are searched for, resulting in a final state containing at least four jets, a charged lepton (muon or electron), and missing transverse momentum. A kinematic fit is performed to identify the pair of jets least likely to be the bottom quarks originating from direct top quark decays and the invariant mass of this pair is used as the final observable in the search. No evidence for the presence of a charged Higgs boson is observed and upper limits at 95% confidence level of 0.8-0.5% are set on the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ H$^+$b), assuming $\mathcal{B}$(H$^+\to$ $\mathrm{c\overline{b}}) =$ 1.0 and $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ H$^+$b) $+$ $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ Wb) = 1.0, for the charged Higgs boson mass range 90-150 GeV.

A comparison of the differential cross sections for the processes Z/gamma* + jets and photon (gamma) + jets is presented. The measurements are based on data collected with the CMS detector at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The differential cross sections and their ratios are presented as functions of pt. The measurements are also shown as functions of the jet multiplicity. Differential cross sections are obtained as functions of the ratio of the Z/gamma* pt to the sum of all jet transverse momenta and of the ratio of the Z/gamma* pt to the leading jet transverse momentum. The data are corrected for detector effects and are compared to simulations based on several QCD calculations.

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.

This Letter presents a search for new physics manifested as anomalous triple gauge boson couplings in WW and WZ diboson production in proton-proton collisions. The search is performed using events containing a W boson that decays leptonically and a W or Z boson whose decay products are merged into a single reconstructed jet. The data, collected at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19 inverse femtobarns. No evidence for anomalous triple gauge couplings is found and the following 95% confidence level limits are set on their values: lambda ([-0.011, 0.011]), Delta kappa[gamma] ([-0.044, 0.063]), and Delta g[1,Z] ([-0.0087, 0.024]). These limits are also translated into their effective field theory equivalents: c[WWW] / Lambda^2 ([-2.7, 2.7] TeV^{-2}), c[B] / Lambda^2 ([-14, 17] TeV^{-2}), and c[W] / Lambda^2 ([-2.0, 5.7] TeV^{-2}).

Measurements of differential cross sections d$\sigma$/d$\phi^*$ and double-differential cross sections d$^2\sigma$/d$\phi^*\,$d$|y|$ for inclusive Z boson production are presented using the dielectron and dimuon final states. The kinematic observable $\phi^*$ correlates with the dilepton transverse momentum but has better resolution, and $y$ is the dilepton rapidity. The analysis is based on data collected with the CMS experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb$^{-1}$. The normalised cross section (1/$\sigma$)$\,$d$\sigma$/d$\phi^*$, within the fiducial kinematic region, is measured with a precision of better than 0.5% for $\phi^*$ < 1. The measurements are compared to theoretical predictions and they agree, typically, within few percent.