CMS-PAS-HIG-24-003

CMS-PAS-HIG-24-003
Search for associated production of a Higgs boson and of two vector bosons via vector boson scattering
CMS Collaboration
2025-07-07

Abstract: A search for the production of a Higgs boson in association with two vector bosons via vector boson scattering is presented. The search uses CMS data from proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV collected from 2016 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $. Selected events are consistent with the presence of two jets originating from vector boson scattering and a Higgs boson decaying into a pair of b quarks, reconstructed as a single large-cone jet, while final states with 0, 1 or 2 charged leptons coming from the decays of the two vector bosons are studied. The study constrains the quartic $ \mathrm{VVHH} $ coupling strength relative to the standard model, $ \kappa_\mathrm{2V} $, in the observed (expected) range [0.40, 1.60] ([0.34, 1.66]) at 95% confidence level when the other Higgs boson couplings are fixed to their SM values. The process is also sensitive to the $ \mathrm{WWHH} $ and $ \mathrm{ZZHH} $ quartic couplings independently, whose strengths relative to the standard model are constrained in the observed (expected) ranges [0.17, 1.84] ([0.11, 1.89]) and [$-$0.37, 2.38] ([$-$0.54, 2.54]), for $ \kappa_\mathrm{2W} $ and $ \kappa_\mathrm{2Z} $ respectively. A two-dimensional scan is performed to determine exclusion regions in the $ \kappa_\mathrm{2W}-\kappa_\mathrm{2Z} $ plane.
Links: CDS record (PDF) ; CADI line (restricted) ;

Figures & Tables	Summary	References	CMS Publications

Figures
png pdf	Figure 1: Example of tree-level Feynman diagrams for the production of $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ via VBS with dependence on the Higgs self-coupling (left, open circle) and the $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H} $ quartic coupling (right, filled circle).
png pdf	Figure 1-a: Example of tree-level Feynman diagrams for the production of $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ via VBS with dependence on the Higgs self-coupling (left, open circle) and the $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H} $ quartic coupling (right, filled circle).
png pdf	Figure 1-b: Example of tree-level Feynman diagrams for the production of $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ via VBS with dependence on the Higgs self-coupling (left, open circle) and the $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H} $ quartic coupling (right, filled circle).
png pdf	Figure 2: DNN discriminator distribution for the all-hadronic fully boosted channel (left) and semileptonic channel (right) in the regions A and C. The expected signal for the SM scenario (orange line) and for $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ = 2 (red line) is superimposed to the data (black dots).
png pdf	Figure 2-a: DNN discriminator distribution for the all-hadronic fully boosted channel (left) and semileptonic channel (right) in the regions A and C. The expected signal for the SM scenario (orange line) and for $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ = 2 (red line) is superimposed to the data (black dots).
png pdf	Figure 2-b: DNN discriminator distribution for the all-hadronic fully boosted channel (left) and semileptonic channel (right) in the regions A and C. The expected signal for the SM scenario (orange line) and for $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ = 2 (red line) is superimposed to the data (black dots).
png pdf	Figure 3: Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL exclusion limit on the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section, as a function of the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ coupling, with other couplings fixed to the SM values. The crossings of the observed limit and the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section (blue line) indicate the ranges of the coupling values excluded.
png pdf	Figure 4: Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL exclusion limit on the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section, as a function of the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}} $ coupling (left) and the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ coupling (right). The crossings of the observed limit and the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section (blue line) indicate the ranges of the coupling values excluded.
png pdf	Figure 4-a: Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL exclusion limit on the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section, as a function of the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}} $ coupling (left) and the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ coupling (right). The crossings of the observed limit and the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section (blue line) indicate the ranges of the coupling values excluded.
png pdf	Figure 4-b: Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL exclusion limit on the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section, as a function of the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}} $ coupling (left) and the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ coupling (right). The crossings of the observed limit and the VBS $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production cross section (blue line) indicate the ranges of the coupling values excluded.
png pdf	Figure 5: Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 1, 2 and 5$ \sigma $ exclusion regions, corresponding to 68.3, 95.4 and $ > $99.99 CL, obtained via a likelihood scan in the two-dimensional $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}}-\kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ plane.

Tables
png pdf	Table 1: Summary of the signal region, or A region, selections by channel. The selections on the ``AB axis'' and ``AC axis'' are inverted to define the regions B, C and D. The ``additional selections'' are applied after the training to further optimize the signal region. For the all-hadronic fully boosted channel the $ X\to\mathrm{qq} $ selections are applied on the $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $-leading and subleading vector boson candidates.
png pdf	Table 2: Data yields in the B, C, D regions, used to estimate the background in region A, together with data, predicted background and expected signal in region A. For signal, the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}}= $ 2 benchmark and the SM expected yields are reported.

Summary

In this note, we report the first study of $ \mathrm{V}\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H} $ production through vector boson scattering using 138 fb$ ^{-1} $ of data recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC between 2016 and 2018 at $ \sqrt{s} $ = 13 TeV. Selected events are compatible with the presence of two jets originating from VBS and a Higgs boson decaying into a pair of b quarks, reconstructed as a single large-cone jet. Final states with 0, 1 or 2 charged leptons coming from the decay of two vector bosons are studied. The $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ coupling modifier is constrained in the observed (expected) range [0.40, 1.60] ([0.34, 1.66]) when the other Higgs boson couplings are fixed to their standard model values. The results represent the second best constraint on $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{V}} $ using CMS data, laying the foundation for future studies complementary to Higgs boson pair production searches. The $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}} $ and $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ coupling modifiers are also constrained independently in the observed (expected) ranges [0.17, 1.84] ([0.11, 1.89]) and [$-$0.37, 2.38] ([$-$0.54, 2.54]), respectively. The results are completed by a two-dimensional scan, which determines exclusion regions in the $ \kappa_{2\mathrm{W}}-\kappa_{2\mathrm{Z}} $ plane.

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