CMS-HIG-18-026

CMS-HIG-18-026 ; CERN-EP-2024-028
Search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalar bosons in the final state with four bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV
CMS Collaboration
15 March 2024
JHEP 06 (2024) 097
Abstract: A search is presented for the decay of the 125 GeV Higgs boson (H) to a pair of new light pseudoscalar bosons ( $\mathrm{a}$ ), followed by the prompt decay of each a boson to a bottom quark-antiquark pair, $\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ . The analysis is performed using a data sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb $^{-1}$ . To reduce the background from standard model processes, the search requires the Higgs boson to be produced in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. The analysis probes the production of new light bosons in a 15 $< m_{\mathrm{a}} <$ 60 GeV mass range. Assuming the standard model predictions for the Higgs boson production cross sections for pp $\to$ WH and ZH, model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are derived for the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}})$ . The combined WH and ZH observed upper limit on the branching fraction ranges from 1.10 for $m_{\mathrm{a}} =$ 20 GeV to 0.36 for $m_{\mathrm{a}} =$ 60 GeV, complementing other measurements in the $\mu\mu\tau\tau$ , $\tau\tau\tau\tau$ and $\mathrm{b}\mathrm{b}\ell\ell$ ( $\ell=\mu$ , $\tau$ ) channels.
Links: e-print arXiv:2403.10341 [hep-ex] (PDF) ; CDS record ; inSPIRE record ; HepData record ; CADI line (restricted) ;

Figures & Tables	Summary	References	CMS Publications

Figures
png pdf	Figure 1: Post-fit BDT distributions in the WH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ , $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 1-a: Post-fit BDT distributions in the WH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ , $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 1-b: Post-fit BDT distributions in the WH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ , $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 1-c: Post-fit BDT distributions in the WH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ , $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 1-d: Post-fit BDT distributions in the WH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ , $\mathrm{W}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 2: Post-fit BDT distributions in the ZH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ and $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 2-a: Post-fit BDT distributions in the ZH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ and $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 2-b: Post-fit BDT distributions in the ZH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ and $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 2-c: Post-fit BDT distributions in the ZH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ and $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 2-d: Post-fit BDT distributions in the ZH channel extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. Signal regions for the 3b (upper) and 4b (lower) event categories are shown separately for the electron (left) and muon (right) channels. The dotted lines $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{20\,\text{GeV}}$ and $\mathrm{Z}\mathrm{H}^{60\,\text{GeV}}$ , illustrate the shapes of the signal template normalised to the SM cross section times a branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 and scaled by the factors indicated in the figure. The horizontal error bars indicate the bin width.
png pdf	Figure 3: Model independent 95% CL upper limits on $\sigma_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}} \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) / \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ for the WH channel (upper), the ZH channel (middle), and the combination of both channels (lower), where ``a'' is a new pseudoscalar particle decaying through $\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ , and $\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ is the SM Higgs boson production cross section.
png pdf	Figure 3-a: Model independent 95% CL upper limits on $\sigma_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}} \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) / \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ for the WH channel (upper), the ZH channel (middle), and the combination of both channels (lower), where ``a'' is a new pseudoscalar particle decaying through $\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ , and $\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ is the SM Higgs boson production cross section.
png pdf	Figure 3-b: Model independent 95% CL upper limits on $\sigma_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}} \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) / \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ for the WH channel (upper), the ZH channel (middle), and the combination of both channels (lower), where ``a'' is a new pseudoscalar particle decaying through $\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ , and $\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ is the SM Higgs boson production cross section.
png pdf	Figure 3-c: Model independent 95% CL upper limits on $\sigma_{\mathrm{V}\mathrm{H}} \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) / \sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ for the WH channel (upper), the ZH channel (middle), and the combination of both channels (lower), where ``a'' is a new pseudoscalar particle decaying through $\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ , and $\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$ is the SM Higgs boson production cross section.

Tables
png pdf	Table 1: Signal region (SR) and control region (CR) requirements in ( $N_{\mathrm{b}}$ , $N_{\text{j}}$ ) for the WH and ZH channels, where $N_{\mathrm{b}}$ is the number of $\mathrm{b}\text{-tagged}$ jets in an event and $N_{\text{j}}$ is the total number of jets in an event.
png pdf	Table 2: Summary of systematic uncertainties and their effect on the background and signal event yields in the WH channel. Uncertainties that are negligible are indicated with a dash ( $\text{---}$ ).
png pdf	Table 3: Summary of systematic uncertainties and their effect on the background and signal event yields in the ZH channel. Uncertainties that are negligible are indicated with a dash ( $\text{---}$ ).
png pdf	Table 4: Signal-plus-background fit results for the 3b WH and ZH signal regions extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. The lepton flavor (e or $\mu$ ) and BDT bin range (in square brackets) are indicated in the column headings. Signal yields corresponding to the expectation for SM VH production and $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 are shown for the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 20 and 60 GeV hypotheses. The background uncertainties account for both systematic and statistical sources.
png pdf	Table 5: Signal-plus-background fit results for the 4b WH and ZH signal regions extracted with the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 60 GeV signal hypothesis. The lepton flavor (e or $\mu$ ) and BDT bin range (in square brackets) are indicated in the column headings. Signal yields corresponding to the expectation for SM VH production and $\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}) =$ 1 are shown for the $m_{\mathrm{a}}=$ 20 and 60 GeV hypotheses. The background uncertainties account for both systematic and statistical sources.

Summary

A search for exotic decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson (H) to a pair of new light pseudoscalar bosons (

$\mathrm{a}$ ), followed by decay to four b quark jets,

$\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$ , is presented, using data recorded with the CMS detector. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 138 fb

$^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016--2018. The search is performed in the context of the associated WH and ZH production in which the W or Z boson decays leptonically,

$\mathrm{W}\to\ell\nu$ or

$\mathrm{Z}\to\ell^+\ell^-$ , with

$\ell$ an electron or muon. No evidence for the targeted decay mode is observed. The analysis obtains model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level on the branching fraction

$\mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\mathrm{a}\mathrm{a}\to\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}})$ of a SM-like Higgs boson. The combined result for the associated WH and ZH Higgs boson production excludes branching fractions as low as 0.36 in the mass range

$m_{\mathrm{a}}$ between about 25 GeV and 60 GeV, assuming the SM WH and ZH cross-sections. These results provide enhanced sensitivity, in the mass range

$m_{\mathrm{a}} \gtrsim$ 20 GeV, in complementary regions of the 2HDM+S model parameter space compared to CMS searches in the

$\mu\mu\tau\tau$ and

$\mathrm{b}\mathrm{b}\ell\ell$ (

$\ell=\mu, \tau$ ) final states.

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