CMS-PAS-HIG-19-008

CMS-PAS-HIG-19-008
Higgs boson production in association with top quarks in final states with electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying tau leptons at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV
CMS Collaboration
July 2020

Abstract: The rate for Higgs (H) bosons production in association with either one ($\mathrm{t}\mathrm{H}$) or two ($\mathrm{t}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{H}$) top quarks is measured in final states with multiple electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying $\tau$ leptons, using proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the CMS experiment. The analyzed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis targets events where the H boson decays via $\mathrm{H} \to \mathrm{W}\mathrm{W}$, $\mathrm{H} \to \tau\tau$, or $\mathrm{H} \to \mathrm{Z}\mathrm{Z}$ and the top quark(s) decay either leptonically or hadronically. The signal yield is maximized by including ten different signatures in the analysis depending on the lepton multiplicity. The separation of the H boson signal from backgrounds is enhanced by machine learning techniques and matrix element methods. The measured production rates for the $\mathrm{t}\bar{\mathrm{t}}\mathrm{H}$ and $\mathrm{t}\mathrm{H}$ signals amount to 0.92 $\pm$ 0.19 (stat) $^{+0.17}_{-0.13}$ (syst) and 5.7 $\pm$ 2.7 (stat) $\pm$ 3.0 (syst) times their respective standard model (SM) expectations. Assuming that the H boson coupling to the $\tau$ lepton is equal in strength to the values expected in the SM, the coupling $y_{\mathrm{t}}$ of the H boson to the top quark is constrained, at 95% confidence level, to be within $-0.9 < y_{\mathrm{t}} < -0.7$ or $ 0.7 < y_{\mathrm{t}} < 1.1$ times the SM expectation for this coupling.
Links: CDS record (PDF) ; inSPIRE record ; CADI line (restricted) ; These preliminary results are superseded in this paper, EPJC 81 (2021) 378. The superseded preliminary plots can be found here.

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