Search for Exotic Higgs Boson Decays H → AA → 4γ with Events Containing Two Merged Diphotons in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s=13 TeV

Authors

A. Tumasyan, CMS Collaboration

Date of this Version

9-5-2023

Citation

PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 131, 101801 (2023). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.101801

Comments

Used by permission.

Abstract

We present the first direct search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → AA, A → γγ in events with two photonlike objects. The hypothetical particle A is a low-mass spin-0 particle decaying promptly to a merged diphoton reconstructed as a single photonlike object. We analyze the data collected by the CMS experiment at √s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb⁻¹. No excess above the estimated background is found. We set upper limits on the branching fraction β(H → AA → 4γ) of (0.9–3.3) × 10⁻³ at 95% confidence level for masses of A in the range 0.1–1.2 GeV.