The results of a search for Higgs boson pair (HH) production in the WW*WW*, WW*$\tau\tau$, and $\tau\tau\tau\tau$ decay modes are presented. The search uses 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV from 2016 to 2018. Analyzed events contain two, three, or four reconstructed leptons, including electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying tau leptons. No evidence for a signal is found in the data. Upper limits are set on the cross section for nonresonant HH production, as well as resonant production in which a new heavy particle decays to a pair of Higgs bosons. For nonresonant production, the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section at 95% confidence level (CL) is 21.3 (19.4) times the standard model (SM) prediction. The observed (expected) ratio of the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling to its value in the SM is constrained to be within the interval $-$6.9 to 11.1 ($-$6.9 to 11.7) at 95% CL, and limits are set on a variety of new-physics models using an effective field theory approach. The observed (expected) limits on the cross section for resonant HH production range from 0.18 to 0.90 (0.08 to 1.06) pb at 95% CL for new heavy-particle masses in the range 250-1000 GeV.

A search for new heavy resonances decaying to pairs of bosons (WW, WZ, or WH) is presented. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. One of the bosons is required to be a W boson decaying to an electron or muon and a neutrino, while the other boson is required to be reconstructed as a single jet with mass and substructure compatible with a quark pair from a W, Z, or Higgs boson decay. The search is performed in the resonance mass range between 1.0 and 4.5 TeV and includes a specific search for resonances produced via vector boson fusion. The signal is extracted using a two-dimensional maximum likelihood fit to the jet mass and the diboson invariant mass distributions. No significant excess is observed above the estimated background. Model-independent upper limits on the production cross sections of spin-0, spin-1, and spin-2 heavy resonances are derived as functions of the resonance mass and are interpreted in the context of bulk radion, heavy vector triplet, and bulk graviton models. The reported bounds are the most stringent to date.

A search for the Higgs boson decaying into a photon and a pair of electrons or muons with an invariant mass $m_{\ell\ell} < 30$ GeV is presented. The analysis is performed using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data, produced by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and collected by the ATLAS experiment. Evidence for the $H \rightarrow \ell \ell \gamma$ process is found with a significance of 3.2$\sigma$ over the background-only hypothesis, compared to an expected significance of 2.1$\sigma$. The best-fit value of the signal strength parameter, defined as the ratio of the observed signal yield to the one expected in the Standard Model, is $\mu = 1.5 \pm 0.5$. The Higgs boson production cross-section times the $H \rightarrow\ell\ell\gamma$ branching ratio for $m_{\ell\ell} <$ 30 GeV is determined to be 8.7 $^{+2.8}_{-2.7}$ fb.

A search is presented for a heavy vector resonance decaying into a Z boson and the standard model Higgs boson, where the Z boson is identified through its leptonic decays to electrons, muons, or neutrinos, and the Higgs boson is identified through its hadronic decays. The search is performed in a Lorentz-boosted regime and is based on data collected from 2016 to 2018 at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. Upper limits are derived on the production of a narrow heavy resonance Z', and a mass below 3.5 and 3.7 TeV is excluded at 95% confidence level in models where the heavy vector boson couples exclusively to fermions and to bosons, respectively. These are the most stringent limits placed on the Heavy Vector Triplet Z' model to date. If the heavy vector boson couples exclusively to standard model bosons, upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fraction are set between 23 and 0.3 fb for a Z' mass between 0.8 and 4.6 TeV, respectively. This is the first limit set on a heavy vector boson coupling exclusively to standard model bosons in its production and decay.

Measurements of the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into a $b\bar{b}$ pair and produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson decaying into leptons, using proton-proton collision data collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS detector, are presented. The measurements use collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = $13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The production of a Higgs boson in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson is established with observed (expected) significances of 4.0 (4.1) and 5.3 (5.1) standard deviations, respectively. Cross-sections of associated production of a Higgs boson decaying into bottom quark pairs with an electroweak gauge boson, $W$ or $Z$, decaying into leptons are measured as a function of the gauge boson transverse momentum in kinematic fiducial volumes. The cross-section measurements are all consistent with the Standard Model expectations, and the total uncertainties vary from 30% in the high gauge boson transverse momentum regions to 85% in the low regions. Limits are subsequently set on the parameters of an effective Lagrangian sensitive to modifications of the $WH$ and $ZH$ processes as well as the Higgs boson decay into $b\bar{b}$.

This paper describes a search for beyond the Standard Model decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new spin-0 particles subsequently decaying into $b$-quark pairs, $H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow (b\bar{b})(b\bar{b})$, using proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. This search focuses on the regime where the decay products are collimated and in the range $15 \leq m_a \leq 30$ GeV and is complementary to a previous search in the same final state targeting the regime where the decay products are well separated and in the range $20 \leq m_a \leq 60$ GeV. A novel strategy for the identification of the $a \rightarrow b\bar{b}$ decays is deployed to enhance the efficiency for topologies with small separation angles. The search is performed with 36 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected in 2015 and 2016 and sets upper limits on the production cross-section of $H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow (b\bar{b})(b\bar{b})$, where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a $Z$ boson.

A search for the $Z\gamma$ decay of the Higgs boson, with $Z$ boson decays into pairs of electrons or muons is presented. The analysis uses proton$-$proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are consistent with the expected background with a $p$-value of 1.3%. An upper limit at 95% confidence level on the production cross-section times the branching ratio for $pp\to H\to Z\gamma$ is set at 3.6 times the Standard Model prediction while 2.6 times is expected in the presence of the Standard Model Higgs boson. The best-fit value for the signal yield normalised to the Standard Model prediction is $2.0^{+1.0}_{-0.9}$ where the statistical component of the uncertainty is dominant.

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons is performed using the LHC Run 2 data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. The search for heavy resonances is performed over the mass range 0.2-2.5 TeV for the $\tau^+\tau^-$ decay with at least one $\tau$-lepton decaying into final states with hadrons. The data are in good agreement with the background prediction of the Standard Model. In the $M_{h}^{125}$ scenario of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, values of $\tan\beta>8$ and $\tan\beta>21$ are excluded at the 95% confidence level for neutral Higgs boson masses of 1.0 TeV and 1.5 TeV, respectively, where $\tan\beta$ is the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two Higgs doublets.

A search is presented for pairs of light pseudoscalar bosons, in the mass range from 4 to 15 GeV, produced from decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson. The decay modes considered are final states that arise when one of the pseudoscalars decays to a pair of tau leptons, and the other one either into a pair of tau leptons or muons. The search is based on proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV that correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb${-1}$. The 2$\mu$2$\tau$ and 4$\tau$ channels are used in combination to constrain the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and the branching fraction into 4$\tau$ final state, $\sigma\mathcal{B}$, exploiting the linear dependence of the fermionic coupling strength of pseudoscalar bosons on the fermion mass. No significant excess is observed beyond the expectation from the standard model. The observed and expected upper limits at 95% confidence level on $\sigma\mathcal{B}$, relative to the standard model Higgs boson production cross section, are set respectively between 0.022 and 0.23 and between 0.027 and 0.19 in the mass range probed by the analysis.

This Letter presents direct searches for lepton flavour violation in Higgs boson decays, $H\rightarrow e\tau$ and $H\rightarrow\mu\tau$, performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The searches are based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $36.1\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. No significant excess is observed above the expected background from Standard Model processes. The observed (median expected) 95 % confidence-level upper limits on the lepton-flavour-violating branching ratios are $0.47\%$ ($0.34^{+0.13}_{-0.10}\,\%$) and $0.28\%$ ($0.37^{+0.14}_{-0.10}\,\%$) for $H\to e\tau$ and $H\to\mu\tau$, respectively.