Search for: All records

Abstract Despite the f₀(980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ $q\overline{q}$) meson, a tetraquark ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ $q\overline{q}q\overline{q}$) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($${{\rm{K}}}\overline{{{\rm{K}}}}$$ $K\overline{K}$) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{g}}}$$ $q\overline{q}g$) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f₀(980) state is an ordinary$${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ $q\overline{q}$meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies (v₂) with the number of constituent quarks (n_q), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f₀(980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f₀(980) →π⁺π⁻, in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and itsv₂is measured as a function of transverse momentum (p_T). It is found that then_q= 2 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ $q\overline{q}$state) hypothesis is favored overn_q= 4 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}$$ $q\overline{q}q\overline{q}$or$${{\rm{K}}}\overline{{{\rm{K}}}}$$ $K\overline{K}$states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in thep_T< 10, 8, or 6 GeV/cranges, respectively, and overn_q= 3 ($${{\rm{q}}}\overline{{{\rm{q}}}}{{\rm{g}}}$$ $q\overline{q}g$hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in thep_T< 8 GeV/crange. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f₀(980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates. 

The polarization of the $\mathrm{\Lambda }$and $\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}$hyperons along the beam direction has been measured in proton-lead ( $p\text{-Pb}$) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 8.16 TeV. The data were obtained with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $186.0\pm 6.5{\mathrm{nb}}^{-1}$. A significant azimuthal dependence of the hyperon polarization, characterized by the second-order Fourier sine coefficient $P_{z,\mathrm{s}2}$, is observed. The $P_{z,\mathrm{s}2}$values decrease as a function of charged particle multiplicity, but increase with transverse momentum. A hydrodynamic model that describes the observed $P_{z,\mathrm{s}2}$values in nucleus-nucleus collisions by introducing vorticity effects does not reproduce either the sign or the magnitude of the $p\text{-Pb}$results. These observations pose a challenge to the current theoretical implementation of spin polarization in heavy ion collisions and offer new insights into the origin of spin polarization in hadronic collisions at LHC energies. 

A search for flavor-changing neutral current interactions of the top quark ( $t$) and the Higgs boson ( $H$) is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data collected in 2016–2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $138{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. Events containing a pair of leptons with the same-sign electric charge and at least one jet are considered. The results are used to constrain the branching fraction ( $\mathcal{B}$) of the top quark decaying to a Higgs boson and an up ( $u$) or charm ( $c$) quark. No significant excess above the estimated background was found. The observed (expected) upper limits at a 95% confidence level are found to be 0.072% (0.059%) for $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)$and 0.043% (0.062%) for $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)$. These results are combined with two other searches performed by the CMS Collaboration for flavor-changing neutral current interactions of top quarks and Higgs bosons in final states where the Higgs boson decays to either a pair of photons or a pair of bottom quarks. The resulting observed (expected) upper limits at the 95% confidence level are 0.019% (0.027%) for $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)$and 0.037% (0.035%) for $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)$. 

A<sc>bstract</sc> Measurements of light-by-light scattering (LbL,γγ → γγ) and the Breit-Wheeler process (BW,γγ →e⁺e⁻) are reported in ultraperipheral PbPb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb⁻¹, was collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2018. Events with an exclusively producedγγore⁺e⁻pair with invariant massesm^γγ,ee>5 GeV, along with other fiducial criteria, are selected. The measured BW fiducial production cross section,σ_fid(γγ → e⁺e⁻) = 263.5±1.8(stat)±17.8(syst)μb, as well as the differential distributions for various kinematic observables, are in agreement with leading-order quantum electrodynamics predictions complemented with final-state photon radiation. The measured differential BW cross sections allow discrimination between different theoretical descriptions of the photon flux of the lead ion. In the LbL final state, 26 exclusive diphoton candidate events are observed compared with 12.0 ± 2.9 expected for the background. Combined with previous results, the observed significance of the LbL signal with respect to the background-only hypothesis is above five standard deviations. The measured fiducial LbL scattering cross section,σ_fid(γγ→γγ) = 107 ± 24(stat) ± 13(syst) nb, is in agreement with next- to-leading-order predictions. Limits on the production of axion-like particles coupled to photons are set over the mass range 5–100 GeV, including the most stringent limits to date in the range of 5–10 GeV. 

The first search for a heavy neutral spin-1 gauge boson ( $Z^{\prime }$) with nonuniversal fermion couplings produced via vector boson fusion processes and decaying to tau leptons or $W$bosons is presented. The analysis is performed using LHC data at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, collected from 2016 to 2018 with the CMS experiment and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $138{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The data are consistent with the standard model predictions. Upper limits are set on the product of the cross section for production of the $Z^{\prime }$boson and its branching fraction to $\tau \tau$or $WW$. The presence of a $Z^{\prime }$boson decaying to ${\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$( $W^{+}{W}^{-}$) is excluded for masses up to 2.45(1.60) TeV, depending on the $Z^{\prime }$boson coupling to standard model weak bosons, and assuming a $Z^{\prime }\to {\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$( $W^{+}{W}^{-}$) branching fraction of 50%. 

Abstract The CMS detector is a general-purpose apparatus that detects high-energy collisions produced at the LHC. Online data quality monitoring of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter is a vital operational tool that allows detector experts to quickly identify, localize, and diagnose a broad range of detector issues that could affect the quality of physics data. A real-time autoencoder-based anomaly detection system using semi-supervised machine learning is presented enabling the detection of anomalies in the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter data. A novel method is introduced which maximizes the anomaly detection performance by exploiting the time-dependent evolution of anomalies as well as spatial variations in the detector response. The autoencoder-based system is able to efficiently detect anomalies, while maintaining a very low false discovery rate. The performance of the system is validated with anomalies found in 2018 and 2022 LHC collision data. In addition, the first results from deploying the autoencoder-based system in the CMS online data quality monitoring workflow during the beginning of Run 3 of the LHC are presented, showing its ability to detect issues missed by the existing system.