A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of spin-zero particles, H -> aa, where the a-boson decays into b-quarks promptly or with a mean proper lifetime c tau(a) up to 6 mm and has a mass in the range of 20-60GeV, is presented. The search is performed in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, giving rise to a signature of one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and multiple jets from b-quark decays. The analysis is based on the dataset of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36: 1 fb(-1). No significant excess of events above the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and 95% confidence-level upper limits are derived for the production cross-sections for pp -> WH, ZH and their combination, times the branching ratio of the decay chain H -> aa -> 4b. For a-bosons which decay promptly, the upper limit on the combination of cross-sections for WH and ZH times the branching ratio of H -> aa -> 4b ranges from 3.0 pb for m(a) = 20 GeV to 1.3 pb for m(a) = 60 GeV, assuming that the ratio of WH to ZH cros-ssections follows the Standard Model prediction. For a-bosons with longer proper lifetimes, the most stringent limits are 1.8 pb and 0.68 pb, respectively, at c tau(a) similar to 0.4 mm.

Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into two spin-zero particles in the H -> aa -> 4b channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector / Aloisio, Alberto; Alviggi, Mariagrazia; Canale, Vincenzo; Della Pietra, Massimo; Merola, Leonardo; Massarotti, Paolo; Conventi, Francesco; Rossi, Elvira; Carlino, Giampaolo; de Asmundis, Riccardo; Di Donato, Camilla; Doria, Alessandra; Iengo, Paolo; Izzo, Vincenzo; Perrella, Sabrina; Sekhniaidze, Givi; Cirotto, Francesco; Lavorgna, ; Marco, ; Giannini, Antonio; Atlas, Collaboration. - In: JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS. - ISSN 1029-8479. - 10(2018). [10.1007/JHEP10(2018)031]

Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into two spin-zero particles in the H -> aa -> 4b channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Aloisio, Alberto;Alviggi, MariaGrazia;Canale, Vincenzo;Della Pietra, Massimo;Merola, Leonardo;Massarotti, Paolo;Conventi, Francesco;Rossi, Elvira;de Asmundis, Riccardo;Perrella, Sabrina;Cirotto, Francesco;
2018

Abstract

A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of spin-zero particles, H -> aa, where the a-boson decays into b-quarks promptly or with a mean proper lifetime c tau(a) up to 6 mm and has a mass in the range of 20-60GeV, is presented. The search is performed in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, giving rise to a signature of one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and multiple jets from b-quark decays. The analysis is based on the dataset of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36: 1 fb(-1). No significant excess of events above the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and 95% confidence-level upper limits are derived for the production cross-sections for pp -> WH, ZH and their combination, times the branching ratio of the decay chain H -> aa -> 4b. For a-bosons which decay promptly, the upper limit on the combination of cross-sections for WH and ZH times the branching ratio of H -> aa -> 4b ranges from 3.0 pb for m(a) = 20 GeV to 1.3 pb for m(a) = 60 GeV, assuming that the ratio of WH to ZH cros-ssections follows the Standard Model prediction. For a-bosons with longer proper lifetimes, the most stringent limits are 1.8 pb and 0.68 pb, respectively, at c tau(a) similar to 0.4 mm.
2018
Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into two spin-zero particles in the H -> aa -> 4b channel in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector / Aloisio, Alberto; Alviggi, Mariagrazia; Canale, Vincenzo; Della Pietra, Massimo; Merola, Leonardo; Massarotti, Paolo; Conventi, Francesco; Rossi, Elvira; Carlino, Giampaolo; de Asmundis, Riccardo; Di Donato, Camilla; Doria, Alessandra; Iengo, Paolo; Izzo, Vincenzo; Perrella, Sabrina; Sekhniaidze, Givi; Cirotto, Francesco; Lavorgna, ; Marco, ; Giannini, Antonio; Atlas, Collaboration. - In: JOURNAL OF HIGH ENERGY PHYSICS. - ISSN 1029-8479. - 10(2018). [10.1007/JHEP10(2018)031]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11588/742887
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