CMS logoCMS event Hgg
Compact Muon Solenoid
LHC, CERN

CMS-HIG-19-018 ; CERN-EP-2020-222
Search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in final states with two bottom quarks and two photons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV
JHEP 03 (2021) 257
Abstract: A search for nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs via gluon-gluon and vector boson fusion processes in final states with two bottom quarks and two photons is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. An upper limit at 95% confidence level is set on the product of the Higgs boson pair production cross section and branching fraction into ${\mathrm{b\bar{b}}} \gamma\gamma$. The observed (expected) upper limit is determined to be 0.67 (0.45) fb, which corresponds to 7.7 (5.2) times the standard model prediction. This search has the highest sensitivity to Higgs boson pair production to date. Assuming all other Higgs boson couplings are equal to their values in the standard model, the observed coupling modifiers of the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling ${\kappa_{\lambda}} $ and the coupling between a pair of Higgs bosons and a pair of vector bosons ${c_{2V}}$ are constrained within the ranges $-3.3 < {\kappa_{\lambda}} < 8.5$ and $-1.3 < c_{2V} < 3.5$ at 95% confidence level. Constraints on ${\kappa_{\lambda}} $ are also set by combining this analysis with a search for single Higgs bosons decaying to two photons, produced in association with top quark-antiquark pairs, and by performing a simultaneous fit of ${\kappa_{\lambda}} $ and the top quark Yukawa coupling modifier ${\kappa_{\mathrm{t}}} $.
Figures & Tables Summary Additional Figures References CMS Publications
Figures

png pdf
Figure 1:
Feynman diagrams of the processes contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO. The upper diagrams correspond to SM processes, involving the top Yukawa coupling ${y_{\mathrm{t}}}$ and the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling ${\lambda _{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}}$, respectively. The lower diagrams correspond to BSM processes: the diagram on the left involves the contact interaction of two Higgs bosons with two top quarks (${c_2}$), the middle diagram shows the quartic coupling between the Higgs bosons and two gluons (${c_{2\mathrm{g}}}$), and the diagram on the right describes the contact interactions between the Higgs boson and gluons (${c_{\mathrm{g}}}$).

png pdf
Figure 1-a:
Feynman diagram of a SM process contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO, involving the top Yukawa coupling ${y_{\mathrm{t}}}$ and the trilinear Higgs boson self-coupling ${\lambda _{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}}$.

png pdf
Figure 1-b:
Feynman diagram of a SM process contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO, involving the top Yukawa coupling ${y_{\mathrm{t}}}$.

png pdf
Figure 1-c:
Feynman diagram of a BSM process contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO, involving the contact interaction of two Higgs bosons with two top quarks (${c_2}$).

png pdf
Figure 1-d:
Feynman diagram of a BSM process contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO, involving the quartic coupling between the Higgs boson and two gluons (${c_{2\mathrm{g}}}$).

png pdf
Figure 1-e:
Feynman diagram of a BSM process contributing to the production of Higgs boson pairs via ggF at LO, involving the contact interactions between the Higgs boson and gluons (${c_{\mathrm{g}}}$).

png pdf
Figure 2:
Feynman diagrams that contribute to the production of Higgs boson pairs via VBF at LO. On the left the diagram involving the HHH vertex (${\lambda _{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}}$), in the middle the diagram with two HVV vertices ($ {c_{\mathrm{V}}} $), and on the right the diagram with the HHVV vertex ($ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $).

png pdf
Figure 2-a:
Feynman diagram that contributes to the production of Higgs boson pairs via VBF at LO, involving the HHH vertex (${\lambda _{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}}$).

png pdf
Figure 2-b:
Feynman diagram that contributes to the production of Higgs boson pairs via VBF at LO, involving two HVV vertices ($ {c_{\mathrm{V}}} $).

png pdf
Figure 2-c:
Feynman diagram that contributes to the production of Higgs boson pairs via VBF at LO, involving the HHVV vertex ($ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $).

png pdf
Figure 3:
The invariant mass distributions of the reconstructed Higgs boson candidates $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ (left) and $ {m_\text {jj}}$ (right) in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 3-a:
The invariant mass distribution of the reconstructed Higgs boson candidates $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 3-b:
The invariant mass distribution of the reconstructed Higgs boson candidates $ {m_\text {jj}}$ in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 4:
Distributions of $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} $. The SM ggF HH signal is compared with several BSM hypotheses listed in Table 1 (left), and the SM VBF HH signal is compared with two different anomalous values of $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ (right). All distributions are normalized to unity.

png pdf
Figure 4-a:
Distribution of $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} $. The SM ggF HH signal is compared with several BSM hypotheses listed in Table. All distributions are normalized to unity.

png pdf
Figure 4-b:
Distribution of $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} $. The SM VBF HH signal is compared with two different anomalous values of $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $. All distributions are normalized to unity.

png pdf
Figure 5:
The distribution of the ttHScore (left) and MVA output (right) in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets background, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 5-a:
The distribution of the ttHScore in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets background, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 5-b:
The distribution of the MVA output in data and simulated events. Data, dominated by $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets background, are compared to the SM ggF HH signal samples and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 6:
The distribution of the two MVA outputs is shown in data and simulated events in the two VBF $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} $ regions: $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} > $ 500 GeV (left) and $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} < $ 500 GeV (right). Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the VBF HH signal samples with SM couplings and $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} =$ 0, SM ggF HH and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the VBF selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 6-a:
The distribution of the MVA output is shown in data and simulated events in the VBF $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} > $ 500 GeV region. Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the VBF HH signal samples with SM couplings and $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} =$ 0, SM ggF HH and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the VBF selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 6-b:
The distribution of the MVA output is shown in data and simulated events in the VBF $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} < $ 500 GeV region. Data, dominated by the $ \gamma \gamma $+jets and $ \gamma $+jets backgrounds, are compared to the VBF HH signal samples with SM couplings and $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} =$ 0, SM ggF HH and single H samples (ttH, ggH, VBF H, VH) after imposing the VBF selection criteria described in Section 5. The error bars on the data points indicate statistical uncertainties. The HH signal has been scaled by a factor of 10$^{3}$ for display purposes.

png pdf
Figure 7:
Parametrized signal shape for $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ (left) and ${m_\text {jj}}$ (right) in the best resolution ggF (upper) and VBF (lower) categories. The open squares represent simulated events and the blue lines are the corresponding models. Also shown are the $\sigma _{\text {eff}}$ value (half the width of the narrowest interval containing 68.3% of the invariant mass distribution) and the corresponding interval as a gray band, and the full width at half the maximum (FWHM) and the corresponding interval as a double arrow.

png pdf
Figure 7-a:
Parametrized signal shape for $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ in the best resolution ggF category. The open squares represent simulated events and the blue lines are the corresponding models. Also shown are the $\sigma _{\text {eff}}$ value (half the width of the narrowest interval containing 68.3% of the invariant mass distribution) and the corresponding interval as a gray band, and the full width at half the maximum (FWHM) and the corresponding interval as a double arrow.

png pdf
Figure 7-b:
Parametrized signal shape for ${m_\text {jj}}$ in the best resolution VBF category. The open squares represent simulated events and the blue lines are the corresponding models. Also shown are the $\sigma _{\text {eff}}$ value (half the width of the narrowest interval containing 68.3% of the invariant mass distribution) and the corresponding interval as a gray band, and the full width at half the maximum (FWHM) and the corresponding interval as a double arrow.

png pdf
Figure 7-c:
Parametrized signal shape for $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ in the best resolution ggF category. The open squares represent simulated events and the blue lines are the corresponding models. Also shown are the $\sigma _{\text {eff}}$ value (half the width of the narrowest interval containing 68.3% of the invariant mass distribution) and the corresponding interval as a gray band, and the full width at half the maximum (FWHM) and the corresponding interval as a double arrow.

png pdf
Figure 7-d:
Parametrized signal shape for ${m_\text {jj}}$ in the best resolution VBF category. The open squares represent simulated events and the blue lines are the corresponding models. Also shown are the $\sigma _{\text {eff}}$ value (half the width of the narrowest interval containing 68.3% of the invariant mass distribution) and the corresponding interval as a gray band, and the full width at half the maximum (FWHM) and the corresponding interval as a double arrow.

png pdf
Figure 8:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ (upper) and $ {m_\text {jj}}$ (lower) for the selected events in data (black points) in the best resolution ggF (CAT0) and VBF (CAT0) categories. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel in each plot shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 8-a:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ for the selected events in data (black points) in the best resolution ggF (CAT0) category. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 8-b:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ for the selected events in data (black points) in the best resolution VBF (CAT0) category. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 8-c:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_\text {jj}}$ for the selected events in data (black points) in the best resolution ggF (CAT0) category. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 8-d:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_\text {jj}}$ for the selected events in data (black points) in the best resolution VBF (CAT0) category. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 9:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ (left) and $ {m_\text {jj}}$ (right) for the selected events in data (black points) weighted by S/(S+B), where S (B) is the number of signal (background) events extracted from the signal-plus-background fit. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel in each plot shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 9-a:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_{\gamma \gamma}} $ for the selected events in data (black points) weighted by S/(S+B), where S (B) is the number of signal (background) events extracted from the signal-plus-background fit. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 9-b:
Invariant mass distributions $ {m_\text {jj}}$ for the selected events in data (black points) weighted by S/(S+B), where S (B) is the number of signal (background) events extracted from the signal-plus-background fit. The solid red line shows the sum of the fitted signal and background (HH+H+B), the solid blue line shows the background component from the single Higgs boson and the nonresonant processes (H+B), and the dashed black line shows the nonresonant background component (B). The normalization of each component (HH, H, B) is extracted from the combined fit to the data in all analysis categories. The one (green) and two (yellow) standard deviation bands include the uncertainties in the background component of the fit. The lower panel shows the residual signal yield after the background (H+B) subtraction.

png pdf
Figure 10:
Expected and observed 95% CL upper limits on the product of the HH production cross section and $\mathcal {B}({{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}} \to {\gamma \gamma \mathrm{b} {}\mathrm{\bar{b}}})$ obtained for different values of $ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ assuming $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1. The green and yellow bands represent, respectively, the one and two standard deviation extensions beyond the expected limit. The long-dashed red line shows the theoretical prediction.

png pdf
Figure 11:
Negative log-likelihood, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis (left) and the observed data (right). The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are set to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 11-a:
Negative log-likelihood, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis. The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are set to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 11-b:
Negative log-likelihood, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the observed data. The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are set to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 12:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis (left) and the observed data (right). The contours obtained using the HH analysis categories only are shown in blue, and in orange when combined with the ttH categories. The best fit value for the HH categories only ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.6, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.2) is indicated by a blue circle, for the HH+ttH categories ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.4, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.3) by an orange diamond, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star. The regions of the 2D scan where the ${\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}}$ parametrization for anomalous values of ${\kappa _{\lambda}}$ at LO is not reliable are shown with a gray band.

png pdf
Figure 12-a:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis. The contours obtained using the HH analysis categories only are shown in blue, and in orange when combined with the ttH categories. The best fit value for the HH categories only ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.6, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.2) is indicated by a blue circle, for the HH+ttH categories ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.4, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.3) by an orange diamond, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star. The regions of the 2D scan where the ${\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}}$ parametrization for anomalous values of ${\kappa _{\lambda}}$ at LO is not reliable are shown with a gray band.

png pdf
Figure 12-b:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the observed data. The contours obtained using the HH analysis categories only are shown in blue, and in orange when combined with the ttH categories. The best fit value for the HH categories only ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.6, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.2) is indicated by a blue circle, for the HH+ttH categories ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.4, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.3) by an orange diamond, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star. The regions of the 2D scan where the ${\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}}$ parametrization for anomalous values of ${\kappa _{\lambda}}$ at LO is not reliable are shown with a gray band.

png pdf
Figure 13:
Negative log-likelihood scan, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis (left) and the observed data (right). The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and the HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are fixed to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 13-a:
Negative log-likelihood scan, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis. The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and the HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are fixed to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 13-b:
Negative log-likelihood scan, as a function of $ {\kappa _{\mathrm{t}}} $, evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the observed data. The 68 and 95% CL intervals are shown with the dashed gray lines. The two curves are shown for the HH (blue) and the HH+ttH (orange) analysis categories. All other couplings are fixed to their SM values.

png pdf
Figure 14:
Expected and observed 95% CL upper limits on the product of the VBF HH production cross section and $\mathcal {B}({{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}} \to {\gamma \gamma \mathrm{b} {}\mathrm{\bar{b}}})$ obtained for different values of $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $. The green and yellow bands represent, respectively, the one and two standard deviation extensions beyond the expected limit. The long-dashed red line shows the theoretical prediction.

png pdf
Figure 15:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis (left) and with the observed data (right). The contours are obtained using the HH analysis categories only. The best fit value ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 0.3) is indicated by a blue circle, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star.

png pdf
Figure 15-a:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the SM hypothesis. The contours are obtained using the HH analysis categories only. The best fit value ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 0.3) is indicated by a blue circle, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star.

png pdf
Figure 15-b:
Negative log-likelihood contours at 68 and 95% CL in the ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $) plane evaluated with an Asimov data set assuming the observed data. The contours are obtained using the HH analysis categories only. The best fit value ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 0.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 0.3) is indicated by a blue circle, and the SM prediction ($ {\kappa _{\lambda}} $ = 1.0, $ {c_{2\mathrm{V}}} $ = 1.0) by a black star.

png pdf
Figure 16:
Expected and observed 95% CL upper limits on the product of the ggF HH production cross section and $\mathcal {B}({{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}} \to {\gamma \gamma \mathrm{b} {}\mathrm{\bar{b}}})$ obtained for different nonresonant benchmark models (defined in Table 1) (upper) and BSM coupling $ {c_2} $ (lower). In this fit, the yield of the VBF HH signal is constrained within uncertainties to the one predicted in the SM. The green and yellow bands represent, respectively, the one and two standard deviation extensions beyond the expected limit. On the lower plot the long-dashed red line shows the theoretical prediction.

png pdf
Figure 16-a:
Expected and observed 95% CL upper limits on the product of the ggF HH production cross section and $\mathcal {B}({{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}} \to {\gamma \gamma \mathrm{b} {}\mathrm{\bar{b}}})$ obtained for different nonresonant benchmark models (defined in Table 1). In this fit, the yield of the VBF HH signal is constrained within uncertainties to the one predicted in the SM. The green and yellow bands represent, respectively, the one and two standard deviation extensions beyond the expected limit.

png pdf
Figure 16-b:
Expected and observed 95% CL upper limits on the product of the ggF HH production cross section and $\mathcal {B}({{\mathrm{H} \mathrm{H}}} \to {\gamma \gamma \mathrm{b} {}\mathrm{\bar{b}}})$ obtained for BSM coupling $ {c_2} $. In this fit, the yield of the VBF HH signal is constrained within uncertainties to the one predicted in the SM. The green and yellow bands represent, respectively, the one and two standard deviation extensions beyond the expected limit. The long-dashed red line shows the theoretical prediction.
Tables

png pdf
Table 1:
Coupling parameter values in the SM and in twelve BSM benchmark hypotheses identified using the method described in Ref. [43].

png pdf
Table 2:
Summary of the analysis categories. Two VBF- and twelve ggF-enriched categories are defined based on the output of the MVA classifier and the mass of the Higgs boson pair system $ {\tilde{M}_{\mathrm {X}}} $. The VBF and ggF categories are mutually exclusive.
Summary
A search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production (HH) has been presented, where one of the Higgs bosons decays to a pair of bottom quarks and the other to a pair of photons. This search uses proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level (CL) on the product of the HH production cross section and the branching fraction into ${\mathrm{b\bar{b}}} \gamma\gamma$ are extracted for production in the standard model (SM) and in several scenarios beyond the SM. The expected upper limit at 95% CL on ${\sigma_{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}}} {\mathcal{B}({{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}}} \to\mathrm{b\bar{b}}\gamma\gamma)}$ is 0.45 fb, corresponding to about 5.2 times the SM prediction, while the observed upper limit is 0.67 fb, corresponding to 7.7 times the expected value for the SM process. The presented search has the highest sensitivity to the SM HH production to date. Upper limits at 95% CL on the SM HH production cross section are also derived as a function of the Higgs boson self-coupling modifier ${\kappa_{\lambda}} \equiv {\lambda_{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}}} /{\lambda^\mathrm{SM}_{\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}\mathrm{H}}} $ assuming that the top quark Yukawa coupling is SM-like. The coupling modifier ${\kappa_{\lambda}} $ is constrained within a range $-3.3 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 8.5$, while the expected constraint is within a range $-2.5 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 8.2$ at 95% CL.

This search is combined with an analysis that targets top quark-antiquark associated production of a single Higgs boson decaying to a diphoton pair. In the scenario in which the HH signal has the properties predicted by the SM, the coupling modifier ${\kappa_{\lambda}}$ has been constrained. In addition, a simultaneous constraint on ${\kappa_{\lambda}}$ and the modifier of the coupling between the Higgs boson and the top quark ${\kappa_{\mathrm{t}}}$ is presented when both the HH and single Higgs boson processes are considered as signals.

Limits are also set on the cross section of nonresonant HH production via vector boson fusion (VBF). The most stringent limit to date is set on the product of the HH VBF production cross section and the branching fraction into ${\mathrm{b\bar{b}}} \gamma\gamma$. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% CL amounts to 1.02 (0.94) fb, corresponding to 225 (208) times the SM prediction. Limits are also set as a function of the modifier of the coupling between two vector bosons and two Higgs bosons, ${c_{2V}}$. The observed excluded region corresponds to ${c_{2V}} < -1.3$ and ${c_{2V}} > 3.5$, while the expected exclusion is ${c_{2V}} < -0.9$ and ${c_{2V}} > 3.1$.

Numerous hypotheses on coupling modifiers beyond the SM have been explored, both in the context of inclusive Higgs boson pair production and for HH production via gluon-gluon fusion and VBF. The production of Higgs boson pairs was also combined with the top quark-antiquark pair associated production of a single Higgs boson. Overall, all of the results are consistent with the SM predictions.
Additional Figures

png pdf
Additional Figure 1:
Impact of the b-jet energy corrections to the Higgs boson mass reconstruction obtained in the standard model process of HH production via ggF. The open squares are the distributions of the simulated di-jet invariant mass before (red) and after (blue) the application of the two-step b-jet energy regression. In both cases, the two distributions are fitted with a double sided-crystal ball parametric shape, and the average value ($\mu $) and core resolution ($\sigma $) are also shown.
References
1 ATLAS Collaboration Observation of a new particle in the search for the standard model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC PLB 716 (2012) 1 1207.7214
2 CMS Collaboration Observation of a new boson at a mass of 125 GeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC PLB 716 (2012) 30 CMS-HIG-12-028
1207.7235
3 CMS Collaboration Observation of a new boson with mass near 125 GeV in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 7 and 8 TeV JHEP 06 (2013) 081 CMS-HIG-12-036
1303.4571
4 F. Englert and R. Brout Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons PRL 13 (1964) 321
5 P. W. Higgs Broken symmetries and the masses of gauge bosons PRL 13 (1964) 508
6 M. Grazzini et al. Higgs boson pair production at NNLO with top quark mass effects JHEP 05 (2018) 059 1803.02463
7 S. Dawson, S. Dittmaier, and M. Spira Neutral Higgs boson pair production at hadron colliders: QCD corrections PRD 58 (1998) 115012 hep-ph/9805244
8 S. Borowka et al. Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion at next-to-leading order with full top-quark mass dependence PRL 117 (2016) 012001 1604.06447
9 J. Baglio et al. Gluon fusion into Higgs pairs at NLO QCD and the top mass scheme EPJC 79 (2019) 459 1811.05692
10 D. de Florian and J. Mazzitelli Higgs boson pair production at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD PRL 111 (2013) 201801 1309.6594
11 D. Y. Shao, C. S. Li, H. T. Li, and J. Wang Threshold resummation effects in Higgs boson pair production at the LHC JHEP 07 (2013) 169 1301.1245
12 D. de Florian and J. Mazzitelli Higgs pair production at next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy at the LHC JHEP 09 (2015) 053 1505.07122
13 F. A. Dreyer and A. Karlberg Vector-boson fusion Higgs pair production at N$ ^3 $LO PRD 98 (2018) 114016 1811.07906
14 J. Baglio et al. The measurement of the Higgs self-coupling at the LHC: theoretical status JHEP 04 (2013) 151 1212.5581
15 L.-S. Ling et al. NNLO QCD corrections to Higgs pair production via vector boson fusion at hadron colliders PRD 89 (2014) 073001 1401.7754
16 D. de Florian et al. Handbook of LHC Higgs cross sections: 4. Deciphering the nature of the Higgs sector CERN-2017-002-M 1610.07922
17 CMS Collaboration Combined measurements of Higgs boson couplings in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}=13 \text {Te}\text {V} $ EPJC 79 (2019) 421 CMS-HIG-17-031
1809.10733
18 ATLAS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in the $ \gamma\gamma b\bar{b} $ final state using pp collision data at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 8 TeV from the ATLAS detector PRL 114 (2015) 081802 1406.5053
19 ATLAS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in the $ b\bar{b}b\bar{b} $ final state from pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector EPJC 75 (2015) 412 1506.00285
20 ATLAS Collaboration Searches for Higgs boson pair production in the $ HH\to bb\tau\tau$, $\gamma\gamma WW^*$, $\gamma\gamma $bb, bbbb channels with the ATLAS detector PRD 92 (2015) 092004 1509.04670
21 ATLAS Collaboration Search for pair production of Higgs bosons in the $ \mathrm{b\bar{b}}\mathrm{b\bar{b}} $ final state using proton--proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector PRD 94 (2016) 052002 1606.04782
22 ATLAS Collaboration Combination of searches for Higgs boson pairs in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector PLB 800 (2020) 135103 1906.02025
23 CMS Collaboration Search for two Higgs bosons in final states containing two photons and two bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV PRD 94 (2016) 052012 CMS-HIG-13-032
1603.06896
24 ATLAS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in the $ \gamma\gamma b\bar{b} $ final state with 13 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment JHEP 11 (2018) 040 1807.04873
25 CMS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in the $ \mathrm{b\bar{b}}\tau\tau $ final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 8 TeV PRD 96 (2017) 072004 CMS-HIG-15-013
1707.00350
26 CMS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in events with two bottom quarks and two tau leptons in proton--proton collisions at $ \sqrt s = $ 13 TeV PLB 778 (2018) 101 CMS-HIG-17-002
1707.02909
27 CMS Collaboration Search for resonant and nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the $ \mathrm{b\bar{b}}\ell\nu\ell\nu $ final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV JHEP 01 (2018) 054 CMS-HIG-17-006
1708.04188
28 CMS Collaboration Search for Higgs boson pair production in the $ \gamma\gamma\mathrm{b\overline{b}} $ final state in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV PLB 788 (2019) 7 CMS-HIG-17-008
1806.00408
29 CMS Collaboration Combination of searches for Higgs boson pair production in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV PRL 122 (2019) 121803 CMS-HIG-17-030
1811.09689
30 ATLAS Collaboration Search for the $ HH \rightarrow b \bar{b} b \bar{b} $ process via vector-boson fusion production using proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector JHEP 07 (2020) 108 2001.05178
31 CMS Collaboration Measurements of $ \mathrm{t\bar{t}H} $ production and the CP structure of the Yukawa interaction between the Higgs boson and top quark in the diphoton decay channel PRL 125 (2020) 061801 CMS-HIG-19-013
2003.10866
32 F. Maltoni, D. Pagani, A. Shivaji, and X. Zhao Trilinear Higgs coupling determination via single-Higgs differential measurements at the LHC EPJC 77 (2017) 887 1709.08649
33 G. Degrassi, P. P. Giardino, F. Maltoni, and D. Pagani Probing the Higgs self coupling via single Higgs production at the LHC JHEP 12 (2016) 080 1607.04251
34 CMS Collaboration The CMS experiment at the CERN LHC JINST 3 (2008) S08004 CMS-00-001
35 CMS Collaboration The CMS trigger system JINST 12 (2017) P01020 CMS-TRG-12-001
1609.02366
36 CMS Trigger, Data Acquisition Group Collaboration The CMS high level trigger EPJC 46 (2006) 605 hep-ex/0512077
37 CMS Collaboration Particle-flow reconstruction and global event description with the cms detector JINST 12 (2017) P10003 CMS-PRF-14-001
1706.04965
38 M. Cacciari, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez The anti-$ {k_{\mathrm{T}}} $ jet clustering algorithm JHEP 04 (2008) 063 0802.1189
39 M. Cacciari, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez FastJet user manual EPJC 72 (2012) 1896 1111.6097
40 CMS Collaboration Jet energy scale and resolution in the CMS experiment in pp collisions at 8 TeV JINST 12 (2017) P02014 CMS-JME-13-004
1607.03663
41 CMS Collaboration Performance of missing transverse momentum reconstruction in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV using the CMS detector JINST 14 (2019) P07004 CMS-JME-17-001
1903.06078
42 G. F. Giudice, C. Grojean, A. Pomarol, and R. Rattazzi The strongly-interacting light Higgs JHEP 06 (2007) 045 hep-ph/0703164
43 A. Carvalho et al. Higgs pair production: Choosing benchmarks with cluster analysis JHEP 04 (2016) 126 1507.02245
44 CMS Collaboration Measurements of Higgs boson properties in the diphoton decay channel in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV JHEP 11 (2018) 185 CMS-HIG-16-040
1804.02716
45 E. Bagnaschi, G. Degrassi, P. Slavich, and A. Vicini Higgs production via gluon fusion in the POWHEG approach in the SM and in the MSSM JHEP 02 (2012) 088 1111.2854
46 G. Heinrich et al. NLO predictions for Higgs boson pair production with full top quark mass dependence matched to parton showers JHEP 08 (2017) 088 1703.09252
47 G. Heinrich et al. Probing the trilinear Higgs boson coupling in di-Higgs production at NLO QCD including parton shower effects JHEP 06 (2019) 066 1903.08137
48 S. P. Jones and S. Kuttimalai Parton shower and NLO-matching uncertainties in Higgs boson pair production JHEP 02 (2018) 176 1711.03319
49 G. Buchalla et al. Higgs boson pair production in non-linear Effective Field Theory with full $ m_t $-dependence at NLO QCD JHEP 09 (2018) 057 1806.05162
50 J. Alwall et al. The automated computation of tree-level and next-to-leading order differential cross sections, and their matching to parton shower simulations JHEP 07 (2014) 079 1405.0301
51 B. Hespel, D. Lopez-Val, and E. Vryonidou Higgs pair production via gluon fusion in the two-Higgs-doublet model JHEP 09 (2014) 124 1407.0281
52 R. Frederix et al. Higgs pair production at the LHC with NLO and parton-shower effects PLB 732 (2014) 142 1401.7340
53 T. Gleisberg et al. Event generation with SHERPA 1.1 JHEP 02 (2009) 007 0811.4622
54 T. Sjostrand et al. An introduction to PYTHIA 8.2 CPC 191 (2015) 159 1410.3012
55 P. Nason A new method for combining NLO QCD with shower Monte Carlo algorithms JHEP 11 (2004) 040 hep-ph/0409146
56 S. Frixione, P. Nason, and C. Oleari Matching NLO QCD computations with Parton Shower simulations: the POWHEG method JHEP 11 (2007) 070 0709.2092
57 S. Alioli, P. Nason, C. Oleari, and E. Re A general framework for implementing NLO calculations in shower Monte Carlo programs: the POWHEG BOX JHEP 06 (2010) 043 1002.2581
58 CMS Collaboration Event generator tunes obtained from underlying event and multiparton scattering measurements EPJC 76 (2016) 155 CMS-GEN-14-001
1512.00815
59 CMS Collaboration Extraction and validation of a new set of CMS PYTHIA8 tunes from underlying-event measurements EPJC 80 (2020) 4 CMS-GEN-17-001
1903.12179
60 NNPDF Collaboration Parton distributions for the LHC Run II JHEP 04 (2015) 040 1410.8849
61 NNPDF Collaboration Parton distributions from high-precision collider data EPJC 77 (2017) 663 1706.00428
62 S. Carrazza, J. I. Latorre, J. Rojo, and G. Watt A compression algorithm for the combination of PDF sets EPJC 75 (2015) 474 1504.06469
63 J. Butterworth et al. PDF4LHC recommendations for LHC Run II JPG 43 (2016) 023001 1510.03865
64 S. Dulat et al. New parton distribution functions from a global analysis of quantum chromodynamics PRD 93 (2016) 033006 1506.07443
65 L. A. Harland-Lang, A. D. Martin, P. Motylinski, and R. S. Thorne Parton distributions in the LHC era: MMHT 2014 PDFs EPJC 75 (2015) 204 1412.3989
66 GEANT4 Collaboration GEANT4---a simulation toolkit NIMA 506 (2003) 250
67 B. Cabouat and T. Sjostrand Some dipole shower studies EPJC 78 (2018) 226 1710.00391
68 B. Jager et al. Parton-shower effects in Higgs production via vector-boson fusion EPJC 80 (2020) 756 2003.12435
69 E. Spyromitros-Xioufis, G. Tsoumakas, W. Groves, and I. Vlahavas Multi-target regression via input space expansion: treating targets as inputs Machine Learning 104 (2016) 55 1211.6581
70 CMS Collaboration Observation of the diphoton decay of the Higgs boson and measurement of its properties EPJC 74 (2014) 3076 CMS-HIG-13-001
1407.0558
71 B. Vormwald The CMS phase-1 pixel detector - experience and lessons learned from two years of operation JINST 14 (2019) C07008
72 CMS Collaboration Pileup mitigation at CMS in 13 TeV data JINST 15 (2020) P09018 CMS-JME-18-001
2003.00503
73 CMS Collaboration Performance of the DeepJet b tagging algorithm using 41.9 fb$^{-1} $ of data from proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV with Phase 1 CMS detector CDS
74 E. Bols et al. Jet flavour classification using DeepJet Submitted to JINST 2008.10519
75 CMS Collaboration Determination of jet energy calibration and transverse momentum resolution in CMS JINST 6 (2011) P11002 CMS-JME-10-011
1107.4277
76 CMS Collaboration A deep neural network for simultaneous estimation of b jet energy and resolution Comput. Softw. Big Sci. 4 (2020) 10 CMS-HIG-18-027
1912.06046
77 N. Kumar and S. P. Martin LHC search for di-Higgs decays of stoponium and other scalars in events with two photons and two bottom jets PRD 90 (2014) 055007 1404.0996
78 S. Hochreiter and J. Schmidhuber Long short-term memory Neur. Comput. 9 (1997) 1735
79 T. Q. Nguyen et al. Topology classification with deep learning to improve real-time event selection at the LHC Comput. Softw. Big Sci. 3 (2019) 12 1807.00083
80 F. Chollet et al. Keras link
81 M. Abadi et al. TensorFlow: Large-scale machine learning on heterogeneous systems 2015 Software available from tensorflow.org. \url http://tensorflow.org/
82 J. C. Collins and D. E. Soper Angular distribution of dileptons in high-energy hadron collisions PRD 16 (Oct, 1977) 2219
83 T. Chen and C. Guestrin XGBoost: A scalable tree boosting system in Proceedings of the 22nd ACM SIGKDD International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, KDD, p. 785 ACM, New York, NY, USA
84 T. Hastie, R. Tibshirani, and J. Friedman The elements of statistical learning Springer-Verlag New York, 2nd edition
85 CMS Collaboration Performance of quark/gluon discrimination in 8 TeV pp data CMS-PAS-JME-13-002 CMS-PAS-JME-13-002
86 CMS Collaboration Jet algorithms performance in 13 TeV data CMS-PAS-JME-16-003 CMS-PAS-JME-16-003
87 CMS Collaboration Search for direct production of supersymmetric partners of the top quark in the all-jets final state in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 13 TeV JHEP 10 (2017) 005 CMS-SUS-16-049
1707.03316
88 M. J. Oreglia A study of the reactions $\psi' \to \gamma\gamma \psi$ PhD thesis, Stanford University, 1980 SLAC Report SLAC-R-236, see A
89 P. D. Dauncey, M. Kenzie, N. Wardle, and G. J. Davies Handling uncertainties in background shapes: the discrete profiling method JINST 10 (2015) P04015 1408.6865
90 CMS Collaboration Performance of photon reconstruction and identification with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 8 TeV JINST 10 (2015) P08010 CMS-EGM-14-001
1502.02702
91 CMS Collaboration Identification of heavy-flavour jets with the CMS detector in pp collisions at 13 TeV JINST 13 (2018) P05011 CMS-BTV-16-002
1712.07158
92 CMS Collaboration Measurement of the inclusive $ W $ and $ Z $ production cross sections in pp collisions at $ \sqrt{s}= $ 7 TeV JHEP 10 (2011) 132 CMS-EWK-10-005
1107.4789
93 CMS Collaboration CMS luminosity measurements for the 2016 data-taking period CMS-PAS-LUM-17-001 CMS-PAS-LUM-17-001
94 CMS Collaboration CMS luminosity measurement for the 2017 data-taking period at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV CMS-PAS-LUM-17-004 CMS-PAS-LUM-17-004
95 CMS Collaboration CMS luminosity measurement for the 2018 data-taking period at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV CMS-PAS-LUM-18-002 CMS-PAS-LUM-18-002
96 T. Junk Confidence level computation for combining searches with small statistics NIMA 434 (1999) 435 hep-ex/9902006
97 A. L. Read Presentation of search results: the CL$ _s $ technique JPG 28 (2002) 2693
98 G. Cowan, K. Cranmer, E. Gross, and O. Vitells Asymptotic formulae for likelihood-based tests of new physics EPJC 71 (2011) 1554 1007.1727
99 ATLAS and CMS Collaborations Procedure for the LHC Higgs boson search combination in summer 2011 CMS-NOTE-2011-005
100 CMS Collaboration A measurement of the Higgs boson mass in the diphoton decay channel PLB 805 (2020) 135425 CMS-HIG-19-004
2002.06398
101 CMS Collaboration Measurement of the Higgs boson production rate in association with top quarks in final states with electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying tau leptons at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV Submitted to EPJC CMS-HIG-19-008
2011.03652
Compact Muon Solenoid
LHC, CERN