Search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalars in the final state with two b quarks and two τ leptons in proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV
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Author(s)
Abercrombie, Daniel Robert
Allen, Brandon Leigh
Azzolini, Virginia
Baty, Austin Alan
Bauer, Gerry P
Bi, Ran
Brandt, Stephanie Akemi
Busza, Wit
Cali, Ivan Amos
D'Alfonso, Mariarosaria
Date Issued
October 2018
Journal
Physics Letters B
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Sirunyan, A. M., et al. “Search for an Exotic Decay of the Higgs Boson to a Pair of Light Pseudoscalars in the Final State with Two b Quarks and Two τ Leptons in Proton–Proton Collisions at √s = 13 TeV.” Physics Letters B, vol. 785, Oct. 2018, pp. 462–88. © 2018 The Authors
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalar bosons is performed for the first time in the final state with two b quarks and two τ leptons. The search is motivated in the context of models of physics beyond the standard model (SM), such as two Higgs doublet models extended with a complex scalar singlet (2HDM + S), which include the next-to-minimal supersymmetric SM (NMSSM). The results are based on a data set of proton–proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9fb[superscript −1], accumulated by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Masses of the pseudoscalar boson between 15 and 60 GeV are probed, and no excess of events above the SM expectation is observed. Upper limits between 3 and 12% are set on the branching fraction B(h→aa→2τ2b) assuming the SM production of the Higgs boson. Upper limits are also set on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to two light pseudoscalar bosons in different 2HDM + S scenarios. Assuming the SM production cross section for the Higgs boson, the upper limit on this quantity is as low as 20% for a mass of the pseudoscalar of 40 GeV in the NMSSM.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science
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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2018.08.057
