CMS-PAS-HIG-21-002

CMS-PAS-HIG-21-002
Search for Higgs boson pairs decaying to WWWW, WW$\tau\tau$, and $\tau\tau\tau\tau$ in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV
CMS Collaboration
January 2022

Abstract: The results of a search for Higgs boson pair (HH) production in the WWWW, WW$ \tau \tau $, and $ \tau\tau\tau\tau $ decay modes are presented. The search uses proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The analyzed events contain two, three, or four reconstructed leptons, including electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying tau leptons. No evidence for a signal is found in the data, and upper limits are set on the cross section for nonresonant HH production, as well as resonant production in which a new heavy particle decays to a pair of Higgs bosons. For nonresonant HH production, the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section at 95% confidence level (CL) is 21.8 (19.6) times the standard model (SM) prediction. The ratio of the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling to its value in the SM is constrained to be between -7.0 and 11.2 at 95% CL, and limits are set on a variety of new-physics models using an effective field theory approach. The observed (expected) limits on the cross section for resonant HH production range from 0.18 to 0.90 (0.08 to 1.07) pb at 95% CL for new heavy-particle masses from 250 to 1000 GeV.
Links: CDS record (PDF) ; Physics Briefing ; CADI line (restricted) ; These preliminary results are superseded in this paper, JHEP 07 (2023) 095. The superseded preliminary plots can be found here.

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