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Abstract Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, detailed studies of its properties have been ongoing. Besides its mass, its width—related to its lifetime—is an important parameter. One way to determine this quantity is to measure its off-shell production, where the Higgs boson mass is far away from its nominal value, and relating it to its on-shell production, where the mass is close to the nominal value. Here we report evidence for such off-shell contributions to the production cross-section of two Z bosons with data from the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We constrain the total rate of the off-shell Higgs boson contribution beyond the Z boson pair production threshold, relative to its standard model expectation, to the interval [0.0061, 2.0] at the 95% confidence level. The scenario with no off-shell contribution is excluded at a p -value of 0.0003 (3.6 standard deviations). We measure the width of the Higgs boson as $${{{\varGamma }}}_{{{{{{\rm{H}}}}}}}={3.2}_{-1.7}^{+2.4}\,{{{{{\rm{MeV}}}}}}$$ Γ H = 3.2 − 1.7 + 2.4 MeV , in agreement with the standard model expectation of 4.1 MeV. In addition, we set constraints on anomalous Higgs boson couplings to W and Z boson pairs.

Abstract Using a data sample of $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$ s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017 and 2018 with an integrated luminosity of $$103\text {~fb}^{-1}$$ 103 fb - 1 , the $$\text {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0}$$ B s 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 and $$\text {B}^{0} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0} \uppi ^+\uppi ^-$$ B 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 π + π - decays are observed with significances exceeding 5 standard deviations. The resulting branching fraction ratios, measured for the first time, correspond to $${\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})K_\mathrm{S}^{0})/{\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0}\rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})K_\mathrm{S}^{0}) = (3.33 \pm 0.69 (\text {stat})\, \pm 0.11\,(\text {syst}) \pm 0.34\,(f_{\mathrm{s}}/f_{\mathrm{d}})) \times 10^{-2}$$ B ( B s 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 ) / B ( B 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 ) = ( 3.33 ± 0.69 ( stat ) ± 0.11 ( syst ) ± 0.34 ( f s / f d ) ) × 10 - 2 and $${\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0} \uppi ^{+} \uppi ^{-})/ {\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0} \rightarrowmore »\uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}^{0}_{\mathrm{S}}) = 0.480 \pm 0.013\,(\text {stat}) \pm 0.032\,(\text {syst})$$ B ( B 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 π + π - ) / B ( B 0 → ψ ( 2S ) K S 0 ) = 0.480 ± 0.013 ( stat ) ± 0.032 ( syst ) , where the last uncertainty in the first ratio is related to the uncertainty in the ratio of production cross sections of $$\hbox {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}}$$ B s 0 and $$\hbox {B}^{0}$$ B 0 mesons, $$f_{\mathrm{s}}/f_{\mathrm{d}}$$ f s / f d .« less

Abstract A search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays is conducted in the four-lepton final state. The decay is assumed to proceed via a pair of beyond the standard model particles, or one such particle and a $${\mathrm{Z}}$$ Z boson. The search uses proton–proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 , at a center-of-mass energy $$\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {TeV} $$ s = 13 TeV . No significant deviation from the standard model expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on model-independent Higgs boson decay branching fractions. Additionally, limits on dark photon and axion-like particle production, based on two specific models, are reported.