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CMS-PAS-HIG-19-017
Measurement of Higgs boson production in association with a W or Z boson in the H $\rightarrow$ WW decay channel
Abstract: The cross section for Higgs boson production in association with leptonically decaying vector bosons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV is measured using events where the Higgs boson decays into a pair of W bosons. Events in which at least one W boson decays leptonically are considered in this analysis. The measurements are based on a data sample collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. In addition to an inclusive measurement, the production cross sections are measured with respect to the vector boson transverse momentum, according to a simplified template cross sections framework.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the e$\mu $ 1j (upper left), e$\mu $ 2j (upper right), $\mu \mu $ 1j (lower left), and $\mu \mu $ 2j (lower right) signal regions after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 1-a:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the e$\mu $ 1j (upper left), e$\mu $ 2j (upper right), $\mu \mu $ 1j (lower left), and $\mu \mu $ 2j (lower right) signal regions after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 1-b:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the e$\mu $ 1j (upper left), e$\mu $ 2j (upper right), $\mu \mu $ 1j (lower left), and $\mu \mu $ 2j (lower right) signal regions after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 1-c:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the e$\mu $ 1j (upper left), e$\mu $ 2j (upper right), $\mu \mu $ 1j (lower left), and $\mu \mu $ 2j (lower right) signal regions after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 1-d:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the e$\mu $ 1j (upper left), e$\mu $ 2j (upper right), $\mu \mu $ 1j (lower left), and $\mu \mu $ 2j (lower right) signal regions after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 2:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 2-a:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 2-b:
The $\tilde{m}_{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 3:
BDT distributions in the OSSF (left) and SSSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 3-a:
BDT distributions in the OSSF (left) and SSSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 3-b:
BDT distributions in the OSSF (left) and SSSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 4:
BDT distributions in the WZ (left) and Z$\gamma $ (right) CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 4-a:
BDT distributions in the WZ (left) and Z$\gamma $ (right) CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 4-b:
BDT distributions in the WZ (left) and Z$\gamma $ (right) CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 5:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distribution in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized to bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 5-a:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distribution in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized to bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 5-b:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distribution in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized to bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 6:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 6-a:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 6-b:
$m_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}}$ distributions in the 1j (left) and 2j (right) WZ CRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison. The overlaid signal is scaled x10 for visibility.

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Figure 7:
BDT discriminant distributions in the XDF (left) and XSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 7-a:
BDT discriminant distributions in the XDF (left) and XSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 7-b:
BDT discriminant distributions in the XDF (left) and XSF (right) SRs after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 8:
BDT discriminant distribution in the ZZ CR after the fit to data. The bin contents are normalized by bin width for ease of presentation. The signal is shown as the topmost contribution to the stacked plot, as well as overlaid for shape comparison.

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Figure 9:
Signal composition in each channel. Signal yields show the expected (a priori) values; while the overall rate of Higgs boson production is scaled in the fit, the signal composition is fixed to its SM value.

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Figure 10:
Expected and observed likelihood profiles as a function of the signal strength. Dashed curves include only statistical uncertainties. 68% and 95% likelihood intervals may be constructed observing where the likelihood profile passes 1.0 and 3.84, respectively.

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Figure 11:
Comparison of the combined and individual signal strengths.

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Figure 12:
Expected and observed likelihood profiles as a function of the signal strength, for the ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} < $ 150 GeV (upper figure) and ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} > $ 150 GeV (lower figure) STXS bins. Dashed curves include only statistical uncertainties. 68% and 95% likelihood intervals shown for reference.

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Figure 12-a:
Expected and observed likelihood profiles as a function of the signal strength, for the ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} < $ 150 GeV (upper figure) and ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} > $ 150 GeV (lower figure) STXS bins. Dashed curves include only statistical uncertainties. 68% and 95% likelihood intervals shown for reference.

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Figure 12-b:
Expected and observed likelihood profiles as a function of the signal strength, for the ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} < $ 150 GeV (upper figure) and ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}} > $ 150 GeV (lower figure) STXS bins. Dashed curves include only statistical uncertainties. 68% and 95% likelihood intervals shown for reference.

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Figure 13:
Comparison between the combined signal strength, determined by applying a single signal strength to both ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}}$ bins and all VH production modes in the STXS fit, and the signal strengths for each ${{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\mathrm{V}}}$ bin and production mode (WH, ZH, and VH inclusive).
Tables

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Table 1:
Basic selection to ensure channel orthogonality.

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Table 2:
Event selection and categorization in the WHSS channel

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Table 3:
Event selection and categorization in the WH3l channel.

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Table 4:
Event selection and categorization in the ZH3l channel.

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Table 5:
Event selection and categorization in the ZH4l channel.

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Table 6:
Signal and background yields compared to number of observed events in all channels after the full event selection. Yields are given in the format posterior (a priori) ($\pm $ posterior uncertainty), where the posterior values come from a combined fit to data. To produce the per-channel yields, separate signal strengths are used in each channel, while the yields for the combined phase space use a single signal strength in all channels. Correlations between uncertainties are accounted for in the total uncertainty shown.

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Table 7:
Impacts of sources of systematic uncertainty on signal strength.

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Table 8:
The posterior signal strengths and significances for the signal strengths extracted from the WHSS, WH3l, ZH3l, and ZH4l categories, as well as the combined signal strength. The per-channel significances correspond to the probability of observing a signal at least as large under the background-only hypothesis where the signal strength in that channel is set to 0.
Summary
The cross sections for Higgs boson production in association with a leptonically decaying vector boson have been measured in events where the Higgs decays to a pair of W bosons. The measurements have been performed with pp collision data sets recorded by the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016, 2017, and 2018, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 137 fb${-1}$ total. In addition to the inclusive measurement, the cross section for VH production was measured with respect to the transverse momentum of the associated vector boson, following the simplified template cross sections framework. The cross sections are extracted through a simultaneous template fit to kinematic distributions of the signal candidate events finely categorized to maximize the sensitivity to Higgs boson production. The observed significance of the inclusive VH production cross section is 4.7$\sigma$, while the observed significance of the VH production cross section for $p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\text{V}} < $ 150 ($>$ 150) is 4.7$\sigma$ (1.8$\sigma$).
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Compact Muon Solenoid
LHC, CERN