Search for the Higgs boson in its decay into tau leptons at CMS

Abstract

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the H --> rr channel is presented. The search is performed on proton collision data collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid at the Large Hadron Collider. The data corresponds to 4.9 fb-1 of proton collisions at [square root of]s = 7 TeV and 19.5 fb-1 at [square root of]s = 8 TeV. The search is based on di-tau events in which one tau decays into an electron or muon, and the other tau decays into hadrons. The search focuses on Higgs masses between 110 GeV and 145 GeV. The analysis reveals no statistically significant excess in the data over the Standard Model backgrounds. Upper limits on the Higgs production cross section at the 95% confidence level are established. The observed limit is statistically consistent with the expected limit in the background-only hypothesis but does not exclude any Higgs mass.