Compact Muon Solenoid
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| CMS-PAS-NPS-25-003 | ||
| Search for Higgs boson decays into two neutral scalars with unequal masses in final states with b quarks and tau leptons | ||
| CMS Collaboration | ||
| 2026-03-18 | ||
| Abstract: A search for Higgs boson decays to a pair of neutral scalars $ \phi_1 $ and $ \phi_2 $ with unequal masses is performed in final states with b quarks and $ \tau $ leptons. Depending on the masses of the neutral scalars, $ \phi_2 $ can undergo a cascade decay into a pair of $ \phi_1 $ scalars. For both the cascade and non-cascade scenario, one $ \phi_1 $ is required to decay to a pair of $ \tau $ leptons; this decay mode provides a distinctive signature that is used for the online selection of events. Proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $ collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV are analyzed. No statistically significant excess over the standard model expectation is observed. Upper limits are set on the Higgs boson branching fraction to $ \phi_1 \phi_2 \to 2\tau 4\mathrm{b} $ and to $ \phi_1 \phi_2 \to 2\tau 2\mathrm{b} $ along with the corresponding cross sections. The observed upper limits on $ \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}\mathrm{B}(\mathrm{H} \to \phi_1 \phi_2 \to 2\tau 4\mathrm{b}, 2\tau 2\mathrm{b}) $, where $ \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}} $ is the standard model Higgs boson production cross section, range between 0.9 and 36.8 pb depending on the scalar masses. | ||
| Links: CDS record (PDF) ; CADI line (restricted) ; | ||
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Compact Muon Solenoid LHC, CERN |
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