A search is presented for narrow heavy resonances X decaying into pairs of Higgs bosons ([Formula: see text]) in proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at [Formula: see text]. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.7[Formula: see text]. The search considers [Formula: see text] resonances with masses between 1 and 3[Formula: see text], having final states of two b quark pairs. Each Higgs boson is produced with large momentum, and the hadronization products of the pair of b quarks can usually be reconstructed as single large jets. The background from multijet and [Formula: see text] events is significantly reduced by applying requirements related to the flavor of the jet, its mass, and its substructure. The signal would be identified as a peak on top of the dijet invariant mass spectrum of the remaining background events. No evidence is observed for such a signal. Upper limits obtained at 95 % confidence level for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction [Formula: see text] range from 10 to 1.5[Formula: see text] for the mass of X from 1.15 to 2.0[Formula: see text], significantly extending previous searches. For a warped extra dimension theory with a mass scale [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text], the data exclude radion scalar masses between 1.15 and 1.55[Formula: see text].
A search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons is performed using the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes. In the ZH mode, the Z boson is required to decay to a pair of charged leptons or a [Formula: see text] quark pair. The searches use the 8 [Formula: see text] pp collision dataset collected by the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 19.7 [Formula: see text]. Certain channels include data from 7 [Formula: see text] collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 [Formula: see text]. The searches are sensitive to non-standard-model invisible decays of the recently observed Higgs boson, as well as additional Higgs bosons with similar production modes and large invisible branching fractions. In all channels, the observed data are consistent with the expected standard model backgrounds. Limits are set on the production cross section times invisible branching fraction, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, for the vector boson fusion and ZH production modes. By combining all channels, and assuming standard model Higgs boson cross sections and acceptances, the observed (expected) upper limit on the invisible branching fraction at [Formula: see text] [Formula: see text] is found to be 0.58 (0.44) at 95 % confidence level. We interpret this limit in terms of a Higgs-portal model of dark matter interactions.
A search is presented for a heavy vector resonance decaying into a Z boson and the standard model Higgs boson, where the Z boson is identified through its leptonic decays to electrons, muons, or neutrinos, and the Higgs boson is identified through its hadronic decays. The search is performed in a Lorentz-boosted regime and is based on data collected from 2016 to 2018 at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb - 1 . Upper limits are derived on the production of a narrow heavy resonance Z ' , and a mass below 3.5 and 3.7 Te is excluded at 95% confidence level in models where the heavy vector boson couples predominantly to fermions and to bosons, respectively. These are the most stringent limits placed on the Heavy Vector Triplet Z ' model to date. If the heavy vector boson couples exclusively to standard model bosons, upper limits on the product of the cross section and branching fraction are set between 23 and 0.3 fb for a Z ' mass between 0.8 and 4.6 Te , respectively. This is the first limit set on a heavy vector boson coupling exclusively to standard model bosons in its production and decay.
A search for charged Higgs bosons produced in vector boson fusion processes and decaying into vector bosons, using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV at the LHC, is reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb - 1 collected with the CMS detector. Events are selected by requiring two or three electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass. No excess of events with respect to the standard model background predictions is observed. Model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are reported on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for vector boson fusion production of charged Higgs bosons as a function of mass, from 200 to 3000 GeV . The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi-Machacek model.
A search for heavy, right-handed neutrinos, [Formula: see text] ([Formula: see text]), and right-handed [Formula: see text] bosons, which arise in the left-right symmetric extensions of the standard model, has been performed by the CMS experiment. The search was based on a sample of two lepton plus two jet events collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8[Formula: see text] corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 [Formula: see text]. For models with strict left-right symmetry, and assuming only one [Formula: see text] flavor contributes significantly to the [Formula: see text] decay width, the region in the two-dimensional [Formula: see text] mass plane excluded at a 95 % confidence level extends to approximately [Formula: see text] and covers a large range of neutrino masses below the [Formula: see text] boson mass, depending on the value of [Formula: see text]. This search significantly extends the [Formula: see text] exclusion region beyond previous results.
The observation of WWγ production in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1} is presented. The observed (expected) significance is 5.6 (5.1) standard deviations. Events are selected by requiring exactly two leptons (one electron and one muon) of opposite charge, moderate missing transverse momentum, and a photon. The measured fiducial cross section for WWγ is 5.9±0.8(stat)±0.8(syst)±0.7(modeling) fb, in agreement with the next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics prediction. The analysis is extended with a search for the associated production of the Higgs boson and a photon, which is generated by a coupling of the Higgs boson to light quarks. The result is used to constrain the Higgs boson couplings to light quarks.
Two related searches for phenomena beyond the standard model (BSM) are performed using events with hadronic jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 Te , collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb - 1 . The first search is inclusive, based on signal regions defined by the hadronic energy in the event, the jet multiplicity, the number of jets identified as originating from bottom quarks, and the value of the kinematic variable M T 2 for events with at least two jets. For events with exactly one jet, the transverse momentum of the jet is used instead. The second search looks in addition for disappearing tracks produced by BSM long-lived charged particles that decay within the volume of the tracking detector. No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background. This is used to constrain a range of BSM models that predict the following: the pair production of gluinos and squarks in the context of supersymmetry models conserving R-parity, with or without intermediate long-lived charginos produced in the decay chain; the resonant production of a colored scalar state decaying to a massive Dirac fermion and a quark; or the pair production of scalar and vector leptoquarks each decaying to a neutrino and a top, bottom, or light-flavor quark. In most of the cases, the results obtained are the most stringent constraints to date.
A search is presented for baryon number violating interactions in top quark production and decay. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. Candidate events are selected by requiring two oppositely charged leptons (electrons or muons) and exactly one jet identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminants are used to separate the signal from the background. No significant deviation from the standard model prediction is observed. Upper limits are placed on the strength of baryon number violating couplings. For the first time the production of single top quarks via baryon number violating interactions is studied. This allows the search to set the most stringent constraints to date on the branching fraction of the top quark decay to a lepton, an up-type quark (u or c), and a down-type quark (d, s, or b). The results improve the previous bounds by 3 to 6 orders of magnitude based on the fermion flavor combination of the baryon number violating interactions.
The dependence of the ratio between the B_{s}^{0} and B^{+} hadron production fractions, f_{s}/f_{u}, on the transverse momentum (p_{T}) and rapidity of the B mesons is studied using the decay channels B_{s}^{0}→J/ψϕ and B^{+}→J/ψK^{+}. The analysis uses a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 61.6 fb^{-1}. The f_{s}/f_{u} ratio is observed to depend on the B p_{T} and to be consistent with becoming asymptotically constant at large p_{T}. No rapidity dependence is observed. The ratio of the B^{0} to B^{+} meson production fractions, f_{d}/f_{u}, is also measured, for the first time in proton-proton collisions, using the B^{0}→J/ψK^{*0} decay channel. The result is found to be within 1 standard deviation of unity and independent of p_{T} and rapidity, as expected from isospin invariance.
A measurement of the top quark-antiquark pair production cross section σ t t ¯ in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 Te is presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb - 1 , recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016. Dilepton events ( e ± μ ∓ , μ + μ - , e + e - ) are selected and the cross section is measured from a likelihood fit. For a top quark mass parameter in the simulation of m t MC = 172.5 Ge the fit yields a measured cross section σ t t ¯ = 803 ± 2 (stat) ± 25 (syst) ± 20 (lumi) pb , in agreement with the expectation from the standard model calculation at next-to-next-to-leading order. A simultaneous fit of the cross section and the top quark mass parameter in the powheg simulation is performed. The measured value of m t MC = 172.33 ± 0.14 (stat) - 0.72 + 0.66 (syst) Ge is in good agreement with previous measurements. The resulting cross section is used, together with the theoretical prediction, to determine the top quark mass and to extract a value of the strong coupling constant with different sets of parton distribution functions.
A search is presented for τ slepton pairs produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV . The search is carried out in events containing two τ leptons in the final state, on the assumption that each τ slepton decays primarily to a τ lepton and a neutralino. Events are considered in which each τ lepton decays to one or more hadrons and a neutrino, or in which one of the τ leptons decays instead to an electron or a muon and two neutrinos. The data, collected with the CMS detector in 2016 and 2017, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 77.2 fb - 1 . The observed data are consistent with the standard model background expectation. The results are used to set 95% confidence level upper limits on the cross section for τ slepton pair production in various models for τ slepton masses between 90 and 200 GeV and neutralino masses of 1, 10, and 20 GeV . In the case of purely left-handed τ slepton production and decay to a τ lepton and a neutralino with a mass of 1 GeV , the strongest limit is obtained for a τ slepton mass of 125 GeV at a factor of 1.14 larger than the theoretical cross section.
A search for new phenomena is performed using events with jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance, as inferred through the M T 2 variable. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb -1 . No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background, and the results are interpreted as exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of predicted particles in a variety of simplified models of R-parity conserving supersymmetry. Depending on the details of the model, 95% confidence level lower limits on the gluino (light-flavor squark) masses are placed up to 2025 (1550) GeV . Mass limits as high as 1070 (1175) GeV are set on the masses of top (bottom) squarks. Information is provided to enable re-interpretation of these results, including model-independent limits on the number of non-standard model events for a set of simplified, inclusive search regions.
We present an observation of photon-photon production of τ lepton pairs in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions. The measurement is based on a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 404 μb^{-1} collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV. The γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-} process is observed for τ^{+}τ^{-} events with a muon and three charged hadrons in the final state. The measured fiducial cross section is σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-})=4.8±0.6(stat)±0.5(syst) μb, where the second (third) term corresponds to the statistical (systematic) uncertainty in σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-}) in agreement with leading-order QED predictions. Using σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-}), we estimate a model-dependent value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the τ lepton of a_{τ}=0.001_{-0.089}^{+0.055}.
Central exclusive and semiexclusive production of pairs is measured with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at center-of-mass energies of 5.02 and 13TeV. The theoretical description of these nonperturbative processes, which have not yet been measured in detail at the LHC, poses a significant challenge to models. The two pions are measured and identified in the CMS silicon tracker based on specific energy loss, whereas the absence of other particles is ensured by calorimeter information. The total and differential cross sections of exclusive and semiexclusive central production are measured as functions of invariant mass, transverse momentum, and rapidity of the system in the fiducial region defined as transverse momentum and pseudorapidity . The production cross sections for the four resonant channels , , , and are extracted using a simple model. These results represent the first measurement of this process at the LHC collision energies of 5.02 and 13TeV.
A search for dark matter in events with a displaced nonresonant muon pair and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1} of proton-proton (pp) collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV produced by the LHC in 2016-2018. No significant excess over the predicted backgrounds is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the inelastic dark matter production cross section σ(pp→A^{'}→χ_{1}χ_{2}) and the decay branching fraction B(χ_{2}→χ_{1}μ^{+}μ^{-}), where A^{'} is a dark photon and χ_{1} and χ_{2} are states in the dark sector with near mass degeneracy. This is the first dedicated collider search for inelastic dark matter.
The first search for scalar leptoquarks produced in τ-lepton-quark collisions is presented. It is based on a set of proton-proton collision data recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. The reconstructed final state consists of a jet, significant missing transverse momentum, and a τ lepton reconstructed through its hadronic or leptonic decays. Limits are set on the product of the leptoquark production cross section and branching fraction and interpreted as exclusions in the plane of the leptoquark mass and the leptoquark-τ-quark coupling strength.
The mass of the top quark is measured in 36.3fb-1 of LHC proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at s=13TeV. The measurement uses a sample of top quark pair candidate events containing one isolated electron or muon and at least four jets in the final state. For each event, the mass is reconstructed from a kinematic fit of the decay products to a top quark pair hypothesis. A profile likelihood method is applied using up to four observables per event to extract the top quark mass. The top quark mass is measured to be 171.77±0.37GeV. This approach significantly improves the precision over previous measurements.
A search is reported for near-threshold structures in the J/ψJ/ψ invariant mass spectrum produced in proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV from data collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 135 fb^{-1}. Three structures are found, and a model with quantum interference among these structures provides a good description of the data. A new structure is observed with a local significance above 5 standard deviations at a mass of 6638_{-38}^{+43}(stat)_{-31}^{+16}(syst) MeV. Another structure with even higher significance is found at a mass of 6847_{-28}^{+44}(stat)_{-20}^{+48}(syst) MeV, which is consistent with the X(6900) resonance reported by the LHCb experiment and confirmed by the ATLAS experiment. Evidence for another new structure, with a local significance of 4.7 standard deviations, is found at a mass of 7134_{-25}^{+48}(stat)_{-15}^{+41}(syst) MeV. Results are also reported for a model without interference, which does not fit the data as well and shows mass shifts up to 150 MeV relative to the model with interference.
The first search exploiting the vector boson fusion process to probe heavy Majorana neutrinos and the Weinberg operator at the LHC is presented. The search is performed in the same-sign dimuon final state using a proton-proton collision dataset recorded at sqrt[s]=13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector and corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. The results are found to agree with the predictions of the standard model. For heavy Majorana neutrinos, constraints on the squared mixing element between the muon and the heavy neutrino are derived in the heavy neutrino mass range 50 GeV-25 TeV; for masses above 650 GeV these are the most stringent constraints from searches at the LHC to date. A first test of the Weinberg operator at colliders provides an observed upper limit at 95% confidence level on the effective μμ Majorana neutrino mass of 10.8 GeV.
A search is presented for the single production of vector-like quarks in proton-proton collisions at
s
= 13
TeV
. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9
fb
- 1
, were recorded with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The analysis focuses on the vector-like quark decay into a top quark and a W boson, with one muon or electron in the final state. The mass of the vector-like quark candidate is reconstructed from hadronic jets, the lepton, and the missing transverse momentum. Methods for the identification of b quarks and of highly Lorentz boosted hadronically decaying top quarks and W bosons are exploited in this search. No significant deviation from the standard model background expectation is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the production cross section and branching fraction as a function of the vector-like quark mass, which range from 0.3 to 0.03
pb
for vector-like quark masses of 700 to 2000
GeV
. Mass exclusion limits up to 1660
GeV
are obtained, depending on the vector-like quark type, coupling, and decay width. These represent the most stringent exclusion limits for the single production of vector-like quarks in this channel.