CMS Experiment Research Articles

Calculation of Forces to the High Granularity Calorimeter Stainless Steel Absorber Plates in the CMS Magnetic Field

The general-purpose Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN incorporates a hadronic calorimeter to register the energies of the charged and neutral hadrons produced in proton–proton collisions at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV. This calorimeter is located inside a superconducting solenoid that is 6 m in diameter and 12.5 m in length, generating a central magnetic flux density of 3.8 T. For operating optimally in the high pileup and high radiation environment of the High-Luminosity LHC, the existing CMS endcap calorimeters will be replaced with a new high granularity calorimeter (HGCal) with an electromagnetic section and a hadronic section in each of the two endcaps. The hadronic section of the HGCal will include 44 stainless-steel absorber plates with a relative permeability value well below 1.05. The volume occupied by 22 plates in each endcap is about 21 m3. The calculation of the axial electromagnetic forces acting on the absorber plates is a crucial element in designing the mechanical construction of the device. With a three-dimensional computer model of the CMS magnet, the axial forces on each absorber plate were calculated, and the dependence of forces on the central magnetic flux density value is presented. The method of calculation and the obtained results are discussed.

Production and decays of 146 GeV flavons into eμ final state at the LHC

The CMS experiment at CERN has reported a possible signal for a resonance at 146 GeV decaying into the eμ final state which, presently, is the only experimental hint for lepton flavour violation in any low- and high-energy experiment. The Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism naturally predicts the existence of new scalars, the flavons, with flavour off-diagonal couplings. We study this framework in the context of the CMS result and find that the minimal, purely leptophilic model is too restricted to match the claimed signal. Thereafter we show how models with additional flavon couplings to quarks can explain the claimed signal while satisfying all the existing constraints on lepton flavour violation.

Observation of four top quark production in proton-proton collisions at [formula omitted

The observation of the production of four top quarks in proton-proton collisions is reported, based on a data sample collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016–2018 at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138fb−1. Events with two same-sign, three, or four charged leptons (electrons and muons) and additional jets are analyzed. Compared to previous results in these channels, updated identification techniques for charged leptons and jets originating from the hadronization of b quarks, as well as a revised multivariate analysis strategy to distinguish the signal process from the main backgrounds, lead to an improved expected signal significance of 4.9 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. Four top quark production is observed with a significance of 5.6 standard deviations, and its cross section is measured to be 17.7−3.5+3.7(stat)−1.9+2.3(syst)fb, in agreement with the available standard model predictions.

Prototyping a ROOT-based distributed analysis workflow for HL-LHC: The CMS use case

The challenges expected for the next era of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), both in terms of storage and computing resources, provide LHC experiments with a strong motivation for evaluating ways of rethinking their computing models at many levels. Great efforts have been put into optimizing the computing resource utilization for the data analysis, which leads both to lower hardware requirements and faster turnaround for physics analyses. In this scenario, the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration is involved in several activities aimed at benchmarking different solutions for running High Energy Physics (HEP) analysis workflows. A promising solution is evolving software towards more user-friendly approaches featuring a declarative programming model and interactive workflows. The computing infrastructure should keep up with this trend by offering on the one side modern interfaces, and on the other side hiding the complexity of the underlying environment, while efficiently leveraging the already deployed grid infrastructure and scaling toward opportunistic resources like public cloud or HPC centers. This article presents the first example of using the ROOT RDataFrame technology to exploit such next-generation approaches for a production-grade CMS physics analysis. A new analysis facility is created to offer users a modern interactive web interface based on JupyterLab that can leverage HTCondor-based grid resources on different geographical sites. The physics analysis is converted from a legacy iterative approach to the modern declarative approach offered by RDataFrame and distributed over multiple computing nodes. The new scenario offers not only an overall improved programming experience, but also an order of magnitude speedup increase with respect to the previous approach.

Observation of τ Lepton Pair Production in Ultraperipheral Pb-Pb Collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV.

We present an observation of photon-photon production of τ lepton pairs in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions. The measurement is based on a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 404 μb^{-1} collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02 TeV. The γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-} process is observed for τ^{+}τ^{-} events with a muon and three charged hadrons in the final state. The measured fiducial cross section is σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-})=4.8±0.6(stat)±0.5(syst) μb, where the second (third) term corresponds to the statistical (systematic) uncertainty in σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-}) in agreement with leading-order QED predictions. Using σ(γγ→τ^{+}τ^{-}), we estimate a model-dependent value of the anomalous magnetic moment of the τ lepton of a_{τ}=0.001_{-0.089}^{+0.055}.

Search for new physics in multijet events with at least one photon and large missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

A search for new physics in final states consisting of at least one photon, multiple jets, and large missing transverse momentum is presented, using proton-proton collision events at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC from 2016 to 2018. The events are divided into mutually exclusive bins characterized by the missing transverse momentum, the number of jets, the number of b-tagged jets, and jets consistent with the presence of hadronically decaying W, Z, or Higgs bosons. The observed data are found to be consistent with the prediction from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in the context of simplified models of pair production of supersymmetric particles via strong and electroweak interactions. Depending on the details of the signal models, gluinos and squarks of masses up to 2.35 and 1.43 TeV, respectively, and electroweakinos of masses up to 1.23 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

Using open experimental data of the European Organization for Nuclear Research in the process of studying the physics of elementary particles

The article discusses the theoretical justification, and the process of developing, implementing, and experimentally verifying the methodology for training future physics teachers using open experimental data from the European Center for Nuclear Research in studying elementary particle physics. The main stages of the study of elementary particle physics are clarified, taking into account the modern achievements of CERN. In the work, the study of elementary particles was carried out based on data from the CMS detector (Compact Muon Solenoid). A description of the methods, techniques, and ways of using the proposed methodological tools for the workshop on the physics of the atomic nucleus and elementary particles is presented. The process of selection and preparation of tasks and instructions based on the open experimental data of the European Center for Nuclear Research, recommendations for working with software, and their approbation in the educational process is considered. An experimental verification, analysis, and generalization of the research results were carried out. Arguments are given regarding the effectiveness and practicality of using the open experimental data of CERN in the process of studying elementary particle physics.

Search for supersymmetry in final states with a single electron or muon using angular correlations and heavy-object identification in proton-proton collisions at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{s} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV

A search for supersymmetry is presented in events with a single charged lepton, electron or muon, and multiple hadronic jets. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search targets gluino pair production, where the gluinos decay into final states with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and either a top quark-antiquark (tt¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{t}\\overline{\ extrm{t}} $$\\end{document}) pair, or a light-flavor quark-antiquark (qq¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{q}\\overline{\ extrm{q}} $$\\end{document}) pair and a virtual or on-shell W boson. The main backgrounds, tt¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{t}\\overline{\ extrm{t}} $$\\end{document} pair and W+jets production, are suppressed by requirements on the azimuthal angle between the momenta of the lepton and of its reconstructed parent W boson candidate, and by top quark and W boson identification based on a machine-learning technique. The number of observed events is consistent with the expectations from standard model processes. Limits are evaluated on supersymmetric particle masses in the context of two simplified models of gluino pair production. Exclusions for gluino masses reach up to 2120 (2050) GeV at 95% confidence level for a model with gluino decay to a tt¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{t}\\overline{\ extrm{t}} $$\\end{document} pair (a qq¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \ extrm{q}\\overline{\ extrm{q}} $$\\end{document} pair and a W boson) and the LSP. For the same models, limits on the mass of the LSP reach up to 1250 (1070) GeV.

Measurement of the Dependence of the Hadron Production Fraction Ratios f_{s}/f_{u} and f_{d}/f_{u} on B Meson Kinematic Variables in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

The dependence of the ratio between the B_{s}^{0} and B^{+} hadron production fractions, f_{s}/f_{u}, on the transverse momentum (p_{T}) and rapidity of the B mesons is studied using the decay channels B_{s}^{0}→J/ψϕ and B^{+}→J/ψK^{+}. The analysis uses a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 61.6 fb^{-1}. The f_{s}/f_{u} ratio is observed to depend on the B p_{T} and to be consistent with becoming asymptotically constant at large p_{T}. No rapidity dependence is observed. The ratio of the B^{0} to B^{+} meson production fractions, f_{d}/f_{u}, is also measured, for the first time in proton-proton collisions, using the B^{0}→J/ψK^{*0} decay channel. The result is found to be within 1 standard deviation of unity and independent of p_{T} and rapidity, as expected from isospin invariance.

The PreProcessor module for the ATLAS Tile calorimeter at the HL-LHC

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has played a crucial role in advancing our understanding of fundamental physics. With the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, the ATLAS and CMS experiments have made significant progess in studying its properties and searching for new physics beyond the Standard Model. To maintain and expand the LHC’s discovery potential, the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project is planned as a major upgrade. As part of this upgrade, the ATLAS experiment has developed a comprehensive roadmap for upgrades, including the installation of new detector components and advancements in data acquisition and processing systems. A crucial component of these enhancements involves the complete replacement of the ATLAS central Tile hadronic calorimeter readout electronics. This upgrade aims to optimize the system’s ability to handle higher data rates and improve its resilience to radiation. Through these comprehensive improvements, the ATLAS experiment aims to meet the requirements and seize the opportunities presented by the HL-LHC era. This paper presents the design and architecture of the TilePPr (Tile PreProcessor) module, which serves as a crucial interface between the on-detector electronics and the central systems of the ATLAS experiment, including Data Acquisition, Detector Control, and Trigger systems. The TilePPr module is based on the Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture (ATCA) and incorporates high-speed optical links, communication interfaces, and data processing capabilities. Through a series of certification tests, the module has demonstrated its compliance with industry standards and functional requirements, confirming its suitability for seamless integration into the ATLAS experiment during the HL-LHC phase.

Search for the Higgs boson decay to a pair of electrons in proton-proton collisions at [formula omitted

A search is presented for the Higgs boson decay to a pair of electrons (▪) in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV. The data set was collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC between 2016 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138fb−1. The analysis uses event categories targeting Higgs boson production via gluon fusion and vector boson fusion. The observed upper limit on the Higgs boson branching fraction to an electron pair is 3.0×10−4 (3.0×10−4 expected) at the 95% confidence level, which is the most stringent limit on this branching fraction to date.

Search for new physics in the τ lepton plus missing transverse momentum final state in proton-proton collisions at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{s} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV

A search for physics beyond the standard model (SM) in the final state with a hadronically decaying tau lepton and a neutrino is presented. This analysis is based on data recorded by the CMS experiment from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The transverse mass spectrum is analyzed for the presence of new physics. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. Limits are set on the production cross section of a W′ boson decaying into a tau lepton and a neutrino. Lower limits are set on the mass of the sequential SM-like heavy charged vector boson and the mass of a quantum black hole. Upper limits are placed on the couplings of a new boson to the SM fermions. Constraints are put on a nonuniversal gauge interaction model and an effective field theory model. For the first time, upper limits on the cross section of t-channel leptoquark (LQ) exchange are presented. These limits are translated into exclusion limits on the LQ mass and on its coupling in the t-channel. The sensitivity of this analysis extends into the parameter space of LQ models that attempt to explain the anomalies observed in B meson decays. The limits presented for the various interpretations are the most stringent to date. Additionally, a model-independent limit is provided.

Search for a charged Higgs boson decaying into a heavy neutral Higgs boson and a W boson in proton-proton collisions at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{s} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV

A search for a charged Higgs boson H± decaying into a heavy neutral Higgs boson H and a W boson is presented. The analysis targets the H decay into a pair of tau leptons with at least one of them decaying hadronically and with an additional electron or muon present in the event. The search is based on proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment during 2016–2018 at s\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\sqrt{s} $$\\end{document} = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The data are consistent with standard model background expectations. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for an H± in the mass range of 300–700 GeV, assuming an H with a mass of 200 GeV. The observed limits range from 0.085 pb for an H± mass of 300 Ge V to 0.019 pb for a mass of 700 GeV. These are the first limits on H± production in the H±→ HW± decay channel at the LHC.

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

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 sqrt[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 B(H→AA→4γ) of (0.9-3.3)×10^{-3} at 95% confidence level for masses of A in the range 0.1-1.2GeV.

Observation of the Rare Decay of the η Meson to Four Muons.

A search for the rare η→μ^{+}μ^{-}μ^{+}μ^{-} double-Dalitz decay is performed using a sample of proton-proton collisions, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC with high-rate muon triggers during 2017 and 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb^{-1}. A signal having a statistical significance well in excess of 5 standard deviations is observed. Using the η→μ^{+}μ^{-} decay as normalization, the branching fraction B(η→μ^{+}μ^{-}μ^{+}μ^{-})=[5.0±0.8(stat)±0.7(syst)±0.7(B_{2μ})]×10^{-9} is measured, where the last term is the uncertainty in the normalization channel branching fraction. This work achieves an improved precision of over 5 orders of magnitude compared to previous results, leading to the first measurement of this branching fraction, which is found to agree with theoretical predictions.

Jet Energy Calibration with Deep Learning as a Kubeflow Pipeline

Precise measurements of the energy of jets emerging from particle collisions at the LHC are essential for a vast majority of physics searches at the CMS experiment. In this study, we leverage well-established deep learning models for point clouds and CMS open data to improve the energy calibration of particle jets. To enable production-ready machine learning based jet energy calibration an end-to-end pipeline is built on the Kubeflow cloud platform. The pipeline allowed us to scale up our hyperparameter tuning experiments on cloud resources, and serve optimal models as REST endpoints. We present the results of the parameter tuning process and analyze the performance of the served models in terms of inference time and overhead, providing insights for future work in this direction. The study also demonstrates improvements in both flavor dependence and resolution of the energy response when compared to the standard jet energy corrections baseline.

Azimuthal correlations in Z +jets events in proton–proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13,text {Te}hspace{-.08em}text {V}

The production of Z bosons associated with jets is measured in text {p}text {p} collisions at sqrt{s}=13,text {Te}hspace{-.08em}text {V} with data recorded with the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.3,text {fb}^{-1}. The multiplicity of jets with transverse momentum p_{textrm{T}} > 30,text {Ge}hspace{-.08em}text {V} is measured for different regions of the Z boson’s p_{textrm{T}} (text {Z }), from lower than 10,text {Ge}hspace{-.08em}text {V} to higher than 100,text {Ge}hspace{-.08em}text {V}. The azimuthal correlation varDelta phi between the Z boson and the leading jet, as well as the correlations between the two leading jets are measured in three regions of p_{textrm{T}} (text {Z }). The measurements are compared with several predictions at leading and next-to-leading orders, interfaced with parton showers. Predictions based on transverse-momentum dependent parton distributions and corresponding parton showers give a good description of the measurement in the regions where multiple parton interactions and higher jet multiplicities are not important. The effects of multiple parton interactions are shown to be important to correctly describe the measured spectra in the low p_{textrm{T}} (text {Z }) regions.

Measurements of inclusive and differential cross sections for the Higgs boson production and decay to four-leptons in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Measurements of the inclusive and differential fiducial cross sections for the Higgs boson production in the H → ZZ → 4ℓ (ℓ = e, μ) decay channel are presented. The results are obtained from the analysis of proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The measured inclusive fiducial cross section is 2.73 ± 0.26 fb, in agreement with the standard model expectation of 2.86 ± 0.1 fb. Differential cross sections are measured as a function of several kinematic observables sensitive to the Higgs boson production and decay to four leptons. A set of double-differential measurements is also performed, yielding a comprehensive characterization of the four leptons final state. Constraints on the Higgs boson trilinear coupling and on the bottom and charm quark coupling modifiers are derived from its transverse momentum distribution. All results are consistent with theoretical predictions from the standard model.

Search for Higgs Boson Decay to a Charm Quark-Antiquark Pair in Proton-Proton Collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV.

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a charm quark-antiquark pair, H→cc[over ¯], produced in association with a leptonically decaying V (W or Z) boson is presented. The search is performed with proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb^{-1}. Novel charm jet identification and analysis methods using machine learning techniques are employed. The analysis is validated by searching for Z→cc[over ¯] in VZ events, leading to its first observation at a hadron collider with a significance of 5.7 standard deviations. The observed (expected) upper limit on σ(VH)B(H→cc[over ¯]) is 0.94 (0.50_{-0.15}^{+0.22})pb at 95% confidence level (C.L.), corresponding to 14 (7.6_{-2.3}^{+3.4}) times the standard model prediction. For the Higgs-charm Yukawa coupling modifier, κ_{c}, the observed (expected) 95% C.L. interval is 1.1<|κ_{c}|<5.5 (|κ_{c}|<3.4), the most stringent constraint to date.

Heavy-ion physics with Compact Muon Solenoid detector

Recent results on heavy-ion physics at the LHC (CERN) by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) collaboration are analyzed. The tests of quark-gluon plasma carried out with the CMS detector provide valuable information about the behavior of matter in the extreme regime of very high energy nucleus-nucleus collisions.