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CMS-EXO-20-001 ; CERN-EP-2021-102
Search for ${\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ resonances in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV using hadronic decays of Lorentz-boosted W bosons
Phys. Lett. B 826 (2022) 136888
Abstract: A search for $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ resonances in the mass range between 0.7 and 6.0 TeV is presented. The W boson is reconstructed via its hadronic decays, with the final-state products forming a single large-radius jet, owing to a high Lorentz boost of the W boson. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016-2018. The $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ mass spectrum is parameterized with a smoothly falling background function and examined for the presence of resonance-like signals. No significant excess above the predicted background is observed. Model-specific upper limits at 95% confidence level on the product of the cross section and branching fraction to the $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ channel are set. Limits for narrow resonances and for resonances with an intrinsic width equal to 5% of their mass, for spin-0 and spin-1 hypotheses, range between 0.17 fb at 6.0 TeV and 55 fb at 0.7 TeV. These are the most restrictive limits to date on the existence of such resonances. In specific narrow-resonance benchmark models, heavy scalar (vector) triplet resonances with masses between 0.75 (1.15) and 1.40 (1.36) TeV are excluded for a range of model parameters. Model-independent limits on the product of the cross section, signal acceptance, and branching fraction to the $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ channel are set for minimum $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ mass thresholds between 1.5 and 8.0 TeV.
Figures & Tables Summary References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1:
Definitions of the signal and control regions in data, based on the jet mass ${m_\mathrm {J}^\text {SD}}$. The stacked filled histograms represent dominant backgrounds from simulation, normalized to the $ {{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\gamma}} $ spectrum in the signal region. The red circles (black squares) correspond to data in the signal (control) region. Benchmark narrow spin-0 signal distributions, normalized to a cross section of 2 pb for two masses, 1.0 and 3.5 TeV, are shown by the solid orange and dashed magenta lines, respectively. The lower panel shows the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2:
Distributions of some of the kinematic variables used in the analysis. Upper row: ${m_{{\mathrm {J}\gamma}}}$ (left), ${\tau _{21}}$ (right); middle row: $ {\eta _\gamma} $ (left), $ {\eta _\mathrm {J}} $ (right); lower row: $ {{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\gamma}} / {m_{{\mathrm {J}\gamma}}} $ (left), ${\cos\theta ^*_\gamma}$ (right), except that the yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. By default, the spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used unless indicated otherwise. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb, except for the ${\tau _{21}}$ distribution, for which the normalization is 2 pb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-a:
Distribution of ${m_{{\mathrm {J}\gamma}}}$. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used unless indicated otherwise. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-b:
Distribution of ${\tau _{21}}$. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 2 pb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-c:
Distribution of $ {\eta _\gamma} $. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-d:
Distribution of $ {\eta _\mathrm {J}} $. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-e:
Distribution of $ {{p_{\mathrm {T}}} ^{\gamma}} / {m_{{\mathrm {J}\gamma}}} $. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 2-f:
Distribution of ${\cos\theta ^*_\gamma}$. The yield in the control region is normalized to that in the signal region. Several benchmark signals are also shown, as indicated by the legend. The spin-0, narrow width hypothesis is used. Signals are normalized to a cross section of 5 fb. Optimized selections are indicated with the black arrows. The two lower panels show the data-to-simulation ratio in the control and signal regions, respectively. The gray hatched band shows the statistical uncertainty in the background estimation.

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Figure 3:
Signal acceptance $\mathcal {A}$ (upper left), the product of the signal acceptance and selection efficiency $\mathcal {A}\varepsilon $ (upper right), and the W tagging efficiency (lower) for spin-0 (solid lines) and spin-1 (dashed lines) resonances, for the narrow (pink) and broad (blue) hypotheses. The curves are obtained by fitting fourth-order polynomials to the set of discrete mass points, for which simulated signal samples are available. For the W tagging efficiency, the average value obtained for the different spin and width hypotheses and the spread of the individual efficiencies about the average are shown with the solid line and the shaded band, respectively.

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Figure 3-a:
Signal acceptance $\mathcal {A}$ for spin-0 (solid lines) and spin-1 (dashed lines) resonances, for the narrow (pink) and broad (blue) hypotheses. The curves are obtained by fitting fourth-order polynomials to the set of discrete mass points, for which simulated signal samples are available.

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Figure 3-b:
The product of the signal acceptance and selection efficiency $\mathcal {A}\varepsilon $ for spin-0 (solid lines) and spin-1 (dashed lines) resonances, for the narrow (pink) and broad (blue) hypotheses. The curves are obtained by fitting fourth-order polynomials to the set of discrete mass points, for which simulated signal samples are available.

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Figure 3-c:
The W tagging efficiency for spin-0 (solid lines) and spin-1 (dashed lines) resonances, for the narrow (pink) and broad (blue) hypotheses. The curves are obtained by fitting fourth-order polynomials to the set of discrete mass points, for which simulated signal samples are available. The average value obtained for the different spin and width hypotheses and the spread of the individual efficiencies about the average are shown with the solid line and the shaded band, respectively.

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Figure 4:
Background-only fit to data (black points) with the chosen background function. The green (inner) and yellow (outer) bands show, respectively, the 68 and 95% confidence level statistical uncertainties in the fit. The lower panel contains the pull distribution, defined as the difference between the data yield and the background prediction, divided by their combined uncertainty. Expected signal shapes are also shown in the lower panel for three different resonance mass hypotheses, 1.0 TeV (red), 2.6 TeV (magenta), and 4.0 TeV (green), and for both the narrow (solid) and broad (dashed) cases. Signal normalizations are set to 15, 1.0, and 0.30 fb, respectively, for illustrative purposes.

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Figure 5:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma})$ for the spin-0 (upper row) and spin-1 (lower row) resonances for the narrow (left column) and broad (right column) resonance cases. Also shown, for spin-0 (spin-1) narrow-resonance case, theoretical cross sections for heavy scalar (vector) triplet resonance production in the benchmark model of Ref. [25], which can be probed by this search.

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Figure 5-a:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma})$ for a spin-0 resonance for the narrow resonance case. Also shown, theoretical cross sections for heavy scalar triplet resonance production in the benchmark model of Ref. [25], which can be probed by this search.

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Figure 5-b:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma})$ for a spin-0 resonance for the broad resonance case. Also shown, theoretical cross sections for heavy scalar triplet resonance production in the benchmark model of Ref. [25], which can be probed by this search.

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Figure 5-c:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma})$ for a spin-1 resonance for the narrow resonance case. Also shown, theoretical cross sections for heavy vector triplet resonance production in the benchmark model of Ref. [25], which can be probed by this search.

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Figure 5-d:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma})$ for a spin-1 resonance for the broad resonance case. Also shown, theoretical cross sections for heavy vector triplet resonance production in the benchmark model of Ref. [25], which can be probed by this search.

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Figure 6:
Observed local $p$-values for spin-0 (left) and spin-1 (right) resonance hypotheses. The largest excess observed at 1.58 TeV corresponds to a local significance of 2.8 (3.1) standard deviations (s.d.) for narrow (broad) signals, for both spin hypotheses.

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Figure 6-a:
Observed local $p$-values for the spin-0 resonance hypothesis. The largest excess observed at 1.58 TeV corresponds to a local significance of 2.8 (3.1) standard deviations (s.d.) for narrow (broad) signals.

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Figure 6-b:
Observed local $p$-values for the spin-1 resonance hypothesis. The largest excess observed at 1.58 TeV corresponds to a local significance of 2.8 (3.1) standard deviations (s.d.) for narrow (broad) signals.

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Figure 7:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level model-independent limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma}) \mathcal {A}$ (left) and $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm {J}\gamma}) \mathcal {A} \epsilon _{\mathrm{W} \text {-tag}}$ (right), as a function of the minimum invariant mass requirement on the ${\mathrm {J}\gamma}$ system.

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Figure 7-a:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level model-independent limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm{W} \gamma}) \mathcal {A}$, as a function of the minimum invariant mass requirement on the ${\mathrm {J}\gamma}$ system.

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Figure 7-b:
Expected and observed 95% confidence level model-independent limits on $\sigma \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{X} \to {\mathrm {J}\gamma}) \mathcal {A} \epsilon _{\mathrm{W} \text {-tag}}$, as a function of the minimum invariant mass requirement on the ${\mathrm {J}\gamma}$ system.
Tables

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Table 1:
Systematic uncertainties affecting the signal description. Uncertainties marked with "$\dagger $" affect both the yield and the shape of the signal distribution, while the rest only affect the signal yield. In cases where the uncertainty is different for various data-taking periods, the three numbers given in the second column correspond to the 2016/2017/2018 data taking, while the third column shows the combined uncertainties across the three years, taking into account the year-to-year correlations. The effect on the signal yield is the same for all the signal hypotheses studied.
Summary
A search for $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ resonances in the mass range between 0.7 and 6.0 TeV has been presented. The W boson is reconstructed from its hadronic decay, in which the final-state products form a single large-radius jet owing to the large Lorentz boost of the W boson. The search is based on proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess above the smoothly falling background is observed. Limits at 95% confidence level on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for $ {\mathrm{W}\gamma} $ resonances are set, ranging from 37 (55) to 0.21 (0.30) fb for the narrow (broad) spin-0 hypothesis, and from 29 (51) to 0.17 (0.19) fb for the for the narrow (broad) spin-1 hypothesis. The results reported are the most restrictive limits to date on the existence of such resonances. In specific narrow-resonance benchmark models, heavy scalar (vector) triplet resonances with masses between 0.75 (1.15) and 1.40 (1.35) TeV are excluded for a range of model parameters probed. In addition, model-independent limits are set on the product of the cross section, branching fraction, and signal acceptance, as functions of the minimum invariant mass of the jet-photon system, making possible the interpretation of these results in the context of a broader class of models predicting similar signatures.
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LHC, CERN