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CMS-HIG-18-010 ; CERN-EP-2019-109
Search for MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV
Phys. Lett. B 798 (2019) 134992
Abstract: A search is performed for neutral non-standard-model Higgs bosons decaying to two muons in the context of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV were used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The search is sensitive to neutral Higgs bosons produced via the gluon fusion process or in association with a $\mathrm{b}\mathrm{\bar{b}}$ quark pair. No significant deviations from the standard model expectation are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in the context of the $m_{\mathrm{h}}^{\text{mod+}}$ and phenomenological MSSM scenarios on the parameter $\tan\beta$ as a function of the mass of the pseudoscalar A boson, in the range from 130 to 600 GeV. The results are also used to set a model-independent limit on the product of the branching fraction for the decay into a muon pair and the cross section for the production of a scalar neutral boson, either via gluon fusion, or in association with b quarks, in the mass range from 130 to 1000 GeV.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
Leading order Feynman diagrams for the production of the MSSM Higgs boson: gluon fusion production (left) and b-associated production (middle and right).

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Figure 1-a:
Leading order Feynman diagram for the production of the MSSM Higgs boson: gluon fusion production.

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Figure 1-b:
Leading order Feynman diagram for the production of the MSSM Higgs boson: b-associated production.

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Figure 1-c:
Leading order Feynman diagram for the production of the MSSM Higgs boson: b-associated production.

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Figure 2:
Distribution of the missing transverse momentum in (left) b-tag and (right) no-b-tag categories, for events with dimuon invariant mass larger than 130 GeV, as observed in data (dots) and predicted by simulation (colored histograms). The shaded gray band around the total background histogram represents the total uncertainty in the simulated prediction. The contribution of the expected signal for $m_{{\mathrm {A}}} = $ 300 GeV and $\tan\beta = $ 20, scaled by a factor of 100, is superimposed for illustration. The vertical line represents the upper threshold used to select the events in the two categories.

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Figure 2-a:
Distribution of the missing transverse momentum in the b-tag category, for events with dimuon invariant mass larger than 130 GeV, as observed in data (dots) and predicted by simulation (colored histograms). The shaded gray band around the total background histogram represents the total uncertainty in the simulated prediction. The contribution of the expected signal for $m_{{\mathrm {A}}} = $ 300 GeV and $\tan\beta = $ 20, scaled by a factor of 100, is superimposed for illustration. The vertical line represents the upper threshold used to select the events in the category.

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Figure 2-b:
Distribution of the missing transverse momentum in the no-b-tag category, for events with dimuon invariant mass larger than 130 GeV, as observed in data (dots) and predicted by simulation (colored histograms). The shaded gray band around the total background histogram represents the total uncertainty in the simulated prediction. The contribution of the expected signal for $m_{{\mathrm {A}}} = $ 300 GeV and $\tan\beta = $ 20, scaled by a factor of 100, is superimposed for illustration. The vertical line represents the upper threshold used to select the events in the category.

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Figure 3:
The selection efficiency for the A boson, as a function of its mass, for the two production mechanisms, b-associated and gluon fusion, and for each of the two event categories. The band centered on each curve corresponds to the envelope of efficiencies obtained when varying $\tan\beta $, combined with the statistical and systematic uncertainties.

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Figure 4:
Examples of fits to data with a signal plus background hypothesis, for a narrow-width signal with a mass of 400 GeV (left), and 980 GeV (right), for the two event categories added together, after weighting by their sensitivity. The resonance $\phi $ is assumed to be produced via the b-associated production, and to decay to two muons. The 68 and 95% CL bands, shown in dark green and light yellow, respectively, include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the difference between the data and the background component of the fit.

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Figure 4-a:
Example of fit to data with a signal plus background hypothesis, for a narrow-width signal with a mass of 400 GeV, for the two event categories added together, after weighting by their sensitivity. The resonance $\phi $ is assumed to be produced via the b-associated production, and to decay to two muons. The 68 and 95% CL bands, shown in dark green and light yellow, respectively, include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the difference between the data and the background component of the fit.

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Figure 4-b:
Example of fit to data with a signal plus background hypothesis, for a narrow-width signal with a mass of 980 GeV, for the two event categories added together, after weighting by their sensitivity. The resonance $\phi $ is assumed to be produced via the b-associated production, and to decay to two muons. The 68 and 95% CL bands, shown in dark green and light yellow, respectively, include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the difference between the data and the background component of the fit.

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Figure 5:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed upper limits, on $\tan\beta $ as a function of $m_{{\mathrm {A}}}$ for the $m_{\mathrm{h}}^{\text {mod+}}$ (left) and the hMSSM (right) scenarios of the MSSM. The observed exclusion contour is indicated by the purple region, while the area under the red curve is excluded by requiring the neutral h boson mass consistent with 125 $\pm$ 3 GeV.

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Figure 5-a:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed upper limits, on $\tan\beta $ as a function of $m_{{\mathrm {A}}}$ for the $m_{\mathrm{h}}^{\text {mod+}}$ scenario of the MSSM. The observed exclusion contour is indicated by the purple region, while the area under the red curve is excluded by requiring the neutral h boson mass consistent with 125 $\pm$ 3 GeV.

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Figure 5-b:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed upper limits, on $\tan\beta $ as a function of $m_{{\mathrm {A}}}$ for the hMSSM scenario of the MSSM. The observed exclusion contour is indicated by the purple region.

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Figure 6:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of b-associated (left) and gluon fusion (right) production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic narrow width.

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Figure 6-a:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of b-associated production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic narrow width.

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Figure 6-b:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of gluon fusion production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic narrow width.

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Figure 7:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of b-associated (left) and gluon fusion (right) production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic width equal to the 10% of the nominal mass.

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Figure 7-a:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of b-associated production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic width equal to the 10% of the nominal mass.

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Figure 7-b:
The 95% CL expected, including the 68 and 95% CL bands, and observed model-independent upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic $\phi $ boson decaying to a dimuon pair, in the case of gluon fusion production. The results are obtained using a signal template with an intrinsic width equal to the 10% of the nominal mass.
Tables

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Table 1:
Summary of the muon selection criteria.

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Table 2:
Summary of the selection criteria that define the two event categories. Categorization is applied after the muon selection.

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Table 3:
Systematic uncertainties in the signal efficiency for the two event categories. The systematic uncertainties hold for both Higgs boson production processes except for the sources listed in the last three rows, which apply to the b-associated production process only. For these three sources, in the model-independent search for a neutral boson produced in association with b quarks, the uncertainties are applied as quoted in the table. In the MSSM interpretation, these numbers have to be weighted by the relative contribution of the b-associated production process to each category. For those sources of systematics that depend on $m_{{\mathrm {A}}}$ the range of uncertainty is quoted.
Summary
A search for neutral minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) Higgs bosons decaying to $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ was performed using 13 TeV data collected in proton-proton collisions by the CMS experiment at the LHC. No excess of events was found above the expected background due to standard model (SM) processes. The 95% confidence level upper limit for the production of beyond SM neutral Higgs bosons is determined in the framework of the $m_{\mathrm{h}}^{\text{mod+}}$ and the phenomenological scenarios of the MSSM. For the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the neutral components of the two Higgs doublets, $\tan\beta$, its excluded values range from $\approx$10 to $\approx$60 for a mass of the pseudoscalar A boson ($m_{\mathrm{A} }$) from 130 to 600 GeV. The larger collected luminosity and the higher center-of-mass energy exclude a larger $m_{\mathrm{A} }$-$\tan\beta$ region, compared to what was obtained at 7 and 8 TeV in a similar analysis. Model-independent exclusion limits on the production cross section times branching fraction of a generic narrow-width neutral boson decaying to two muons have been determined assuming the neutral boson to be produced entirely either via b-associated or gluon fusion mechanisms. The limits are determined in the mass range from 130 to 1000 GeV, separately for the two production mechanisms. Similarly, exclusion limits are also obtained assuming a signal width equal to 10% of its mass value.
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