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CMS-PAS-HIG-24-001
Search for HHWW couplings in the VBS production of $ \mathrm{W^{\pm}W^{\pm}H} $, with $ \mathrm{H\rightarrow b\bar{b}} $ decays
Abstract: A search is performed for anomalous HHWW couplings based on the process $ \mathrm{pp\rightarrow W^{\pm}W^{\pm}H+jj} $, using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV in the LHC Run 2, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $. The search is performed in final states that contain a forward-backward jet pair, two W bosons that decay to same-sign leptons, and a Higgs boson that decays into two bottom quarks. Boosted decision trees are trained to separate the signal from the background. The HHWW coupling modifier $ \kappa_{WW} $ is constrained at 95% confidence level to be in the interval $[-3.3, 5.3]$, consistent with the expected interval of $[-2.4, 4.4]$.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
Tree-level Feynman diagrams of vector boson scattering multi-boson productions with Higgs boson in the final state, with (a) related to the Higgs self-coupling ($ {\kappa_\lambda} $), and (b) related to the Higgs gauge quartic coupling ($ {\kappa_{VV}} $).

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Figure 1-a:
Tree-level Feynman diagrams of vector boson scattering multi-boson productions with Higgs boson in the final state, with (a) related to the Higgs self-coupling ($ {\kappa_\lambda} $), and (b) related to the Higgs gauge quartic coupling ($ {\kappa_{VV}} $).

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Figure 1-b:
Tree-level Feynman diagrams of vector boson scattering multi-boson productions with Higgs boson in the final state, with (a) related to the Higgs self-coupling ($ {\kappa_\lambda} $), and (b) related to the Higgs gauge quartic coupling ($ {\kappa_{VV}} $).

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Figure 2:
Data-MC comparison of $ m_{jj} $ and $ \Delta\eta_{jj} $ distributions in the pre-selection regions. Two signal hypotheses, with one for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 1 which represents the SM and the other for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 4.5, are plotted. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the pre-fit statistical uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 2-a:
Data-MC comparison of $ m_{jj} $ and $ \Delta\eta_{jj} $ distributions in the pre-selection regions. Two signal hypotheses, with one for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 1 which represents the SM and the other for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 4.5, are plotted. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the pre-fit statistical uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 2-b:
Data-MC comparison of $ m_{jj} $ and $ \Delta\eta_{jj} $ distributions in the pre-selection regions. Two signal hypotheses, with one for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 1 which represents the SM and the other for $ {\kappa_{VV}} = $ 4.5, are plotted. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the pre-fit statistical uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 3:
Post-fit shapes for the SR, including (a) $ \ell\ell $ final state (b) $ \ell\tau $ final state. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the post-fit uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 3-a:
Post-fit shapes for the SR, including (a) $ \ell\ell $ final state (b) $ \ell\tau $ final state. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the post-fit uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 3-b:
Post-fit shapes for the SR, including (a) $ \ell\ell $ final state (b) $ \ell\tau $ final state. The uncertainty band in the ratio plots represents the post-fit uncertainty of the Monte Carlo, which corresponds to the uncertainty band in the distribution plots.

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Figure 4:
Limits of $ \kappa_{VV} $ with CL=95%.
Tables

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Table 1:
Input variables used for the event kinematics BDT.

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Table 2:
The post-fit yields of the CR, for $ \ell\ell $ and $ \ell\tau $ categories separately. The errors for total background include the statistical and systematic uncertainties.
Summary
Data recorded with the CMS experiment during LHC Run 2 amounting to 138 $ \mathrm{fb}^{-1} $ of pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV are used to search for anomalous couplings in the process $ \mathrm{pp} \rightarrow \mathrm{W}^{ \pm} \mathrm{W}^{ \pm} \mathrm{H}+\mathrm{jj} $, where the Higgs boson decays to two bottom quarks and the W bosons decay leptonically. The analysis focuses on the channel in which the two b-jets are merged. The observed(expected) 95% CL interval for $ \kappa_{WW} $ is $[-3.3, 5.3]$($[-2.4, 4.4]$). This marks the first analysis of the $ \mathrm{pp} \rightarrow \mathrm{W}^{ \pm} \mathrm{W}^{ \pm} \mathrm{H}+\mathrm{jj} $ process and opens the possibility of further analysis of the same process with different final states.
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