Search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson into a Z boson and a pseudoscalar particle in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

(CMS Collaboration) Hayrapetyan, Aram ; ... ; Giljanović, Duje ; Godinović, Nikola ; Lelas, Damir ; Šćulac, Ana ; Kovač, Marko ; Šćulac, Toni ; Bargassa, Pedrame ; Brigljević, Vuko ; Chitroda, Bhakti Kanulal ; Ferenček, Dinko ; Mishra, Saswat ; Starodumov, Andrey ; Šuša, Tatjana ; ... ; Roguljić, Matej ; ... ; Zhokin, Alexande (2024) Search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson into a Z boson and a pseudoscalar particle in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV. Physics Letters B, 852 . ISSN 0370-2693

	PDF - Published Version - article Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (2MB)
	PDF - Submitted Version - article Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (1MB)

Abstract

A search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a Z boson and a light pseudoscalar particle (a), decaying to a pair of leptons and a pair of photons, respectively, is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of s√ = 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The analysis probes pseudoscalar masses ma between 1 and 30 GeV, leading to two pairs of well-isolated leptons and photons. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the Higgs boson production cross section times its branching fraction to two leptons and two photons. The observed (expected) limits are in the range of 1.1-17.8 (1.7-17.9) fb within the probed ma interval. An excess of data above the expected standard model background with a local (global) significance of 2.6 (1.3) standard deviations is observed for a mass hypothesis of ma = 3 GeV. Limits on models involving axion-like particles, formulated as an effective field theory, are also reported.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	CMS; Axion like particles; Higgs
Subjects:	NATURAL SCIENCES > Physics > Physics of Elementary Particles and Fields
Divisions:	Centre for detectors, sensors and electronics Division of Experimental Physics
Depositing User:	Lorena Palameta
Date Deposited:	07 Oct 2024 11:27
URI:	http://fulir.irb.hr/id/eprint/9107
DOI:	10.1016/j.physletb.2024.138582

Actions (login required)

View Item