A search for resonant and non-resonant pair production of Higgs bosons in the $b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$ final state is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data with $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. The semileptonic and fully hadronic decays of the $\tau$-lepton pair are considered. No significant excess above the expected background is observed in the data. The cross-section times branching ratio for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is constrained to be less than 30.9 fb, 12.7 times the Standard Model expectation, at 95% confidence level. The data are also analyzed to probe resonant Higgs boson pair production, constraining a model with an extended Higgs sector based on two doublets and a Randall-Sundrum bulk graviton model. Upper limits are placed on the resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section times branching ratio, excluding resonances $X$ in the mass range $305~{\rm GeV} < m_X < 402~{\rm GeV}$ in the simplified hMSSM minimal supersymmetric model for $\tan\beta=2$ and excluding bulk Randall-Sundrum gravitons $G_{\mathrm{KK}}$ in the mass range $325~{\rm GeV} < m_{G_{\mathrm{KK}}} < 885~{\rm GeV}$ for $k/\overline{M}_{\mathrm{Pl}} = 1$.
Observed and expected limits at 95% CL on the cross-sections of RS Graviton to HH for k/MPl = 1 process
Observed and expected limits at 95% CL on the cross-sections of RS Graviton to HH for k/MPl = 2 process
Observed and expected limits at 95% CL on the cross-sections of hMSSM scalar X to HH process
A search for Higgs boson pair production in events with two $b$-jets and two $\tau$-leptons is presented, using a proton-proton collision dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Higgs boson pairs produced non-resonantly or in the decay of a narrow scalar resonance in the mass range from 251 to 1600 GeV are targeted. Events in which at least one $\tau$-lepton decays hadronically are considered, and multivariate discriminants are used to reject the backgrounds. No significant excess of events above the expected background is observed in the non-resonant search. The largest excess in the resonant search is observed at a resonance mass of 1 TeV, with a local (global) significance of $3.1\sigma$ ($2.0\sigma$). Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at 4.7 (3.9) times the Standard Model prediction, assuming Standard Model kinematics, and on the resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at between 21 and 900 fb (12 and 840 fb), depending on the mass of the narrow scalar resonance.
Breakdown of the relative contributions to the uncertainty in the extracted signal cross-sections, as determined in the likelihood fit (described in Section 8) to data. These are obtained by fixing the relevant nuisance parameters in the likelihood fit, and subtracting the obtained uncertainty on the fitted signal cross-sections in quadrature from the total uncertainty, and then dividing the result by the total uncertainty. The sum in quadrature of the individual components differs from the total uncertainty due to correlations between uncertainties in the different groups.
Post-fit expected number of signal and background events and observed number of data events in the last two bins of the non-resonant BDT score distribution of the SM signal after applying the selection criteria and requiring exactly 2 b-tagged jets and assuming a background-only hypothesis
Observed and expected upper limits at 95% CL on the cross-section of non-resonant HH production according to SM-like kinematics, and on the cross-section of non-resonant HH production divided by the SM prediction. The 1 sigma and 2 sigma variations around the expected limit are also shown.
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