Search for decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a Z boson and a $\rho$ or $\phi$ meson

Bruno, Giacomo;Bury, Florian Joel J;Caputo, Claudio;David, Pieter;Zobec, Joze;et.al.
(2020) Journal of High Energy Physics — Vol. 11 (2020)

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Authors
  • Author
  • Bury, Florian Joel JUCLouvain
    Author
  • Caputo, ClaudioUCLouvain
    Author
  • David, PieterUCLouvain
    Author
  • Author
  • Delcourt, MartinUCLouvain
    Author
  • Donertas, Izzeddin SuatUCLouvain
    Author
  • Author
  • Author
  • Mondal, KuntalUCLouvain
    Author
  • Prisciandaro, JessicaUCLouvain
    Author
  • Taliercio, AngelaUCLouvain
    Author
  • Teklishyn, MaksymUCLouvain
    Author
  • Vischia, PietroUCLouvain
    Author
  • Wuyckens, SophieUCLouvain
    Author
  • Zobec, JozeUCLouvain
    Author
  • et. al.
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Abstract
Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a Z boson and a $\rho^0$(770) or $\phi$(1020) meson are searched for using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at $\sqrt{s} = $ 13 TeV. The analysed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. Events are selected in which the Z boson decays into a pair of electrons or a pair of muons, and the $\rho$ and $\phi$ mesons decay into pairs of pions and kaons, respectively. No significant excess above the background model is observed. As different polarization states are possible for the decay products of the Z boson and $\rho$ or $\phi$ mesons, affecting the signal acceptance, scenarios in which the decays are longitudinally or transversely polarized are considered. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson branching fractions into Z$\rho$ and Z$\phi$ are determined to be 1.04-1.31% and 0.31-0.40%, respectively, where the ranges reflect the considered polarization scenarios; these values are 740-940 and 730-950 times larger than the respective standard model expectations. These results constitute the first experimental limits on the two decay channels.
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Bruno, G., Bury, F. J. J., Caputo, C., David, P., Delaere, C., Delcourt, M., Donertas, I. S., Giammanco, A., Lemaitre, V., Mondal, K., Prisciandaro, J., Taliercio, A., Teklishyn, M., Vischia, P., Wuyckens, S., Zobec, J., & et al. (2020). Search for decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a Z boson and a $\rho$ or $\phi$ meson. Journal of High Energy Physics, 11. https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP11(2020)039 (Original work published 2020)