CMS-HIG-21-017

CMS-HIG-21-017 ; CERN-EP-2023-300
Measurement of the production cross section of a Higgs boson with large transverse momentum in its decays to a pair of $ \tau $ leptons in proton-proton collisions at $ \sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV
CMS Collaboration
29 March 2024
Submitted to Phys. Lett. B
Abstract: A measurement of the production cross section of a Higgs boson with transverse momentum greater than 250 GeV is presented where the Higgs boson decays to a pair of $ \tau $ leptons. It is based on proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $. Because of the large transverse momentum of the Higgs boson the $ \tau $ leptons from its decays are boosted and produced spatially close, with their decay products overlapping. Therefore, a dedicated algorithm was developed to reconstruct and identify them. The observed (expected) significance of the measured signal with respect to the standard model background-only hypothesis is 3.5 (2.2) standard deviations. The product of the production cross section and branching fraction is measured to be 1.64 $ ^{+0.68}_{-0.54} $ times the standard model expectation. The fiducial differential production cross section is also measured as functions of the Higgs boson and leading jet transverse momenta. This measurement extends the probed large-transverse-momentum region beyond 600 GeV.
Links: e-print arXiv:2403.20201 [hep-ex] (PDF) ; CDS record ; inSPIRE record ; Physics Briefing ; CADI line (restricted) ;

Figures & Tables	Summary	References	CMS Publications

Figures
png pdf	Figure 1: Comparison of the isolation efficiencies for the standard and boosted HPS algorithms in the $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (left) and $ \ell\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (right) final states.
png pdf	Figure 1-a: Comparison of the isolation efficiencies for the standard and boosted HPS algorithms in the $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (left) and $ \ell\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (right) final states.
png pdf	Figure 1-b: Comparison of the isolation efficiencies for the standard and boosted HPS algorithms in the $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (left) and $ \ell\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (right) final states.
png pdf	Figure 2: Observed and expected NN distributions in the SR, after combining all four $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ bins, in the $ \mu\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper left), $ \mathrm{e}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper right), $ \mathrm{e}\mu $ (lower left), and $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (lower right) channels. The signal and background distributions are the result of a simultaneous binned maximum likelihood fit to all three output NN distributions, including all individual $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ bins and data-taking years. The bottom panel shows the ratio of the number of events observed in data to that of the expected background.
png pdf	Figure 2-a: Observed and expected NN distributions in the SR, after combining all four $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ bins, in the $ \mu\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper left), $ \mathrm{e}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper right), $ \mathrm{e}\mu $ (lower left), and $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (lower right) channels. The signal and background distributions are the result of a simultaneous binned maximum likelihood fit to all three output NN distributions, including all individual $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ bins and data-taking years. The bottom panel shows the ratio of the number of events observed in data to that of the expected background.
png pdf	Figure 2-b: Observed and expected NN distributions in the SR, after combining all four $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ bins, in the $ \mu\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper left), $ \mathrm{e}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper right), $ \mathrm{e}\mu $ (lower left), and $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (lower right) channels. The signal and background distributions are the result of a simultaneous binned maximum likelihood fit to all three output NN distributions, including all individual $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ bins and data-taking years. The bottom panel shows the ratio of the number of events observed in data to that of the expected background.
png pdf	Figure 2-c: Observed and expected NN distributions in the SR, after combining all four $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ bins, in the $ \mu\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper left), $ \mathrm{e}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper right), $ \mathrm{e}\mu $ (lower left), and $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (lower right) channels. The signal and background distributions are the result of a simultaneous binned maximum likelihood fit to all three output NN distributions, including all individual $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ bins and data-taking years. The bottom panel shows the ratio of the number of events observed in data to that of the expected background.
png pdf	Figure 2-d: Observed and expected NN distributions in the SR, after combining all four $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ bins, in the $ \mu\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper left), $ \mathrm{e}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (upper right), $ \mathrm{e}\mu $ (lower left), and $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ (lower right) channels. The signal and background distributions are the result of a simultaneous binned maximum likelihood fit to all three output NN distributions, including all individual $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ bins and data-taking years. The bottom panel shows the ratio of the number of events observed in data to that of the expected background.
png pdf	Figure 3: Observed and expected differential fiducial cross sections in bins of $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ (left) and $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{j}_1} $ (right). The last bins include the overflow. The uncertainty bands in the theoretical predictions include uncertainties from the following sources: PDF, renormalization and factorization scales, underlying event and parton showering, and the branching fraction $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\tau\tau) $.
png pdf	Figure 3-a: Observed and expected differential fiducial cross sections in bins of $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ (left) and $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{j}_1} $ (right). The last bins include the overflow. The uncertainty bands in the theoretical predictions include uncertainties from the following sources: PDF, renormalization and factorization scales, underlying event and parton showering, and the branching fraction $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\tau\tau) $.
png pdf	Figure 3-b: Observed and expected differential fiducial cross sections in bins of $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $ (left) and $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{j}_1} $ (right). The last bins include the overflow. The uncertainty bands in the theoretical predictions include uncertainties from the following sources: PDF, renormalization and factorization scales, underlying event and parton showering, and the branching fraction $ \mathcal{B}(\mathrm{H}\to\tau\tau) $.

Tables

png pdf

Table 1:
Selection requirements for the four $ \tau\tau $ final states. The relative isolation variable, $ I_{rel}^{\mu,\mathrm{e}} $, for muons and electrons is evaluated as the scalar sum of the $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ of the reconstructed particles in a cone around the lepton track relative to the $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ of the lepton. In the $ \tau_\mathrm{h}\tau_\mathrm{h} $ channel, the trigger requirement is defined by a combination of trigger candidates above a given threshold, indicated inside parentheses in GeV. The thresholds for the offline selection are driven by the trigger requirements. Except for the $ I_{rel}^{\mu,\mathrm{e}} $, the quantities are in units of GeV.

Summary

The measurement of the production cross section of a Higgs boson with large $ p_{\mathrm{T}} $ decaying to a pair of $ \tau $ leptons has been performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$ ^{-1} $. A dedicated reconstruction algorithm has been used to resolve the overlapping decay products of the two close-by $ \tau $ leptons. The $ \mathrm{H}\to\tau\tau $ signal with $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} > $ 250 GeV is established with a significance of 3.5 standard deviations (2.2 expected). The best fit of the product of the observed $ \mathrm{H}\to\tau\tau $ signal production cross section and branching fraction is 1.64 $ ^{+0.68}_{-0.54} $ times the SM expectation. The fiducial inclusive production cross section has been measured to be 3.88 $ ^{+1.69}_{-1.35} $ fb, which is consistent with the SM prediction of 2.36 $ \pm $ 0.51 fb. The fiducial differential production cross section is also measured as functions of the Higgs boson and leading jet transverse momenta. This measurement extends the probed large-transverse-momentum region beyond 600 GeV. No significant deviation with respect to the SM predictions is observed in the transverse momentum distribution of the Higgs boson with large $ p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{H}} $.

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