A bstract A novel search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into pairs of long-lived neutral particles, each decaying into a bottom quark pair, is performed using 139 fb − 1 of $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events consistent with the production of a Higgs boson in association with a leptonically decaying Z boson are analysed. Long-lived particle (LLP) decays are reconstructed from inner-detector tracks as displaced vertices with high mass and track multiplicity relative to Standard Model processes. The analysis selection requires the presence of at least two displaced vertices, effectively suppressing Standard Model backgrounds. The residual background contribution is estimated using a data-driven technique. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed, and upper limits are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs. Branching ratios above 10% are excluded at 95% confidence level for LLP mean proper lifetimes cτ as small as 4 mm and as large as 100 mm. For LLP masses below 40 GeV, these results represent the most stringent constraint in this lifetime regime.
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Determining the lifetime of long-lived particles at the LHC
We examine the capacity of the Large Hadron Collider to determine the mean proper lifetime of long-lived particles assuming different decay final states. We mostly concentrate on the high luminosity runs of the LHC, and therefore, develop our discussion in light of the high amount of pile-up and the various upgrades for the HL-LHC runs. We employ model-dependent and model-independent methods in order to reconstruct the proper lifetime of neutral long- lived particles decaying into displaced leptons, potentially accompanied by missing energy, as well as charged long- lived particles decaying ihnto leptons and missing energy. We also present a discussion for lifetime estimation of neu- tral long-lived particles decaying into displaced jets, along with the challenges in the high PU environment of HL-LHC. After a general discussion, we illustrate and discuss these methods using several new physics models. We conclude that the lifetime can indeed be reconstructed in many concrete cases. Finally, we discuss to which extent including timing information, which is an important addition in the Phase-II upgrade of CMS, can improve such an analysis.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1915147
- PAR ID:
- 10278854
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The European physical journal
- Volume:
- 81
- Issue:
- 172
- ISSN:
- 1434-6060
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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