Vector Boson Fusion Production Research Articles

Illuminating all-hadronic final states with a photon: Exotic decays of the Higgs boson to four bottom quarks in vector boson fusion plus gamma at hadron colliders

We investigate the potential to detect Higgs boson decays to four bottom quarks through a pair of pseudoscalars, a final state that is predicted by many theories beyond the Standard Model. For the first time, the signal sensitivity is evaluated for the final state using the vector boson fusion (VBF) production with and without an associated photon, for the Higgs at mH=125 GeV, at hadron colliders. The signal significance is 0.5σ to 6σ, depending on the pseudoscalar mass ma, when setting the Higgs decay branching ratio to unity, using an integrated luminosity of 150 fb−1 at s=13 TeV. This corresponds to an upper limit of 0.3, on the Higgs branching ratio to four bottom quarks, with a nonobservation of the decay. We also consider several variations of selection requirements—input variables for the VBF tagging and the kinematic variables for the photon—that could help guide the design of new triggers for the Run-3 period of the LHC and for the HL-LHC. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Test of CP-invariance of the Higgs boson in vector-boson fusion production and in its decay into four leptons

A search for CP violation in the decay kinematics and vector-boson fusion production of the Higgs boson is performed in the H → ZZ* → 4ℓ (ℓ = e, μ) decay channel. The results are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. Matrix element-based optimal observables are used to constrain CP-odd couplings beyond the Standard Model in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory expressed in the Warsaw and Higgs bases. Differential fiducial cross-section measurements of the optimal observables are also performed, and a new fiducial cross-section measurement for vector-boson-fusion production is provided. All measurements are in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of a CP-even Higgs boson.

Composite resonances at a 10 TeV muon collider

We investigate the reach for resonances of the composite Higgs models at a 10 TeV μ+μ− collider with up to 10 ab−1 luminosity. The strong dynamics sector is modeled by the minimal coset SO(5)/SO(4), where vector resonances are in (3, 1) of SO(4) and fermions are in (2, 2). Various production and decay channels are studied. For the spin-1 resonances, the projections are made based on the radiative return and vector boson fusion production channels. The muon collider can cover most of the kinematically allowed mass range and can measure the coupling gρ to percent level. For the fermionic resonances (i.e. the top partners), pair production easily covers the resonance mass below 5 TeV, while single production extends the reach to 6 TeV for a small ξ = 0.015.

Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the 2b+2ℓ+ETmiss\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ 2b+2\\ell +{E}_{\ extrm{T}}^{\ extrm{miss}} $$\\end{document} final state in pp 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 with the ATLAS detector

A search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair (HH) production is presented, in which one of the Higgs bosons decays to a b-quark pair (bb¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ b\\overline{b} $$\\end{document}) and the other decays to WW*, ZZ*, or τ+τ−, with in each case a final state with ℓ+ℓ−+ neutrinos (ℓ = e, μ). The analysis targets separately the gluon-gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production modes. Data recorded by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1, are used in this analysis. Events are selected to have exactly two b-tagged jets and two leptons with opposite electric charge and missing transverse momentum in the final state. These events are classified using multivariate analysis algorithms to separate the HH events from other Standard Model processes. No evidence of the signal is found. The observed (expected) upper limit on the cross-section for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 9.7 (16.2) times the Standard Model prediction at 95% confidence level. The Higgs boson self-interaction coupling parameter κλ and the quadrilinear coupling parameter κ2V are each separately constrained by this analysis to be within the ranges [−6.2, 13.3] and [−0.17, 2.4], respectively, at 95% confidence level, when all other parameters are fixed.

Constraining lepton flavor violating Higgs couplings at the HL-LHC in the vector boson fusion channel

We explore the parameter space of lepton flavor violating (LFV) neutral Higgs Yukawa couplings with the muon and tau leptons that can be probed at the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) via the vector boson fusion (VBF) Higgs production process. Our projected sensitivities for the Standard Model Higgs ($h$) LFV branching ratio $\text{Br}(h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\tau})$ in the $pp\ensuremath{\rightarrow}hjj\ensuremath{\rightarrow}(h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\tau})jj$ channel at the HL-LHC are contrasted with the current and future low-energy constraints from the anomalous magnetic moment and electric dipole moment of the muon, as well as with other LFV observables, such as $\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}3\ensuremath{\mu}$ and $\ensuremath{\tau}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\gamma}$. We also study the LFV prospects of a generic beyond the Standard Model neutral Higgs boson ($H$) with a mass in the range of ${m}_{H}\ensuremath{\in}[20,800]\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{GeV}$ and give the projected model-independent upper limits on the VBF production cross section of $Hjj$ times the branching ratio of $H\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\tau}$ at the HL-LHC. We interpret these results in the context of a two-Higgs doublet model as a case study.

VBF Event Classification with Recurrent Neural Networks at ATLAS’s LHC Experiment

A novel machine learning (ML) approach based on a recurrent neural network (RNN) for event topology identification in high energy physics (HEP) is presented. The vector-boson fusion (VBF) production mechanism arising in proton-to-proton collisions is predicted both from the current theoretical model of the particle physics, the standard model, and from its extensions that foresee potential new physics phenomena. This physical process has a well-defined event topology in the final state and a distinctive detector signature. In this work, an ML approach based on the RNN architecture is developed to deal with hadronic-only event information in order to enhance the acceptance of this production mechanism in physics analysis of the data. This technique was applied to a physics analysis in the context of high-mass diboson resonance searches using data collected by the ATLAS experiment.

Search for Higgs boson pair production in the bb¯μ+μ− final state at the LHC

The Higgs boson pair production via gluon-gluon fusion and vector boson fusion in the $b\bar{b}\mu^+\mu^-$ final state at the LHC is studied to probe the Higgs self-coupling $\kappa_\lambda$ and the four-boson HHVV coupling $\kappa_{\rm{2V}}$ for the first time. A cut-based analysis and a machine learning analysis using boosted decision trees are performed with categorizations and optimizations depending on the variations of these couplings. The expected sensitivities are extracted with different integrated luminosities assumed up to the full HL-LHC runs. The expected upper limit at 95\% confidence level on the HH production is calculated as 47 (28) times the Standard Model cross-section using the cut-based method (boosted decision trees) for the gluon-gluon fusion production, and 928 for the vector boson fusion production, assuming an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$. The expected constraints on the couplings at 95\% confidence level are calculated to be $-13.8< \kappa_{\lambda}< 19.1$ ($-10.0< \kappa_{\lambda}< 15.5$) and $-3.4< \kappa_{\rm{2V}}< 5.5$ using the cut-based method (boosted decision trees), respectively, assuming an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.

The role of vector boson fusion in the production of heavy vector triplets at the LHC and HL-LHC

We clarify the role of vector boson fusion (VBF) in the production of heavy vector triplets at the LHC and the HL-LHC. We point out that the presence of VBF production leads to an unavoidable rate of Drell-Yan (DY) production and highlight the subtle interplay between the falling parton luminosities and the increasing importance of VBF production as the heavy vector mass increases. We discuss current LHC searches and HL-LHC projections in di-boson and di-lepton final states and demonstrate that VBF production outperforms DY production for resonance masses above 1 TeV in certain regions of the parameter space. We define two benchmark parameter points which provide competitive production rates in vector boson fusion.

Measuring lepton flavor violation at the LHC

A new process with the lepton flavor violation (LFV) is presented in the setup for the LHC. The LFV is induced by the one-loop effect through Higgs bosons in the framework of the type-III two Higgs doublet model. At the decoupling limit of the parameter space of type-III two Higgs doublet model, where the masses of heavier Higgs bosons are at TeV scale while the mass of the lighter Higgs boson remains as the SM Higgs boson, the LFV process is strongly suppressed at the tree level. However, one-loop induced LFV process is instead realized to be a sizeable production cross section in vector-boson fusion production process at LHC. Since the LFV process may not be produced by the $s$-channel $H/A$ or ${H}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}$ bosons decays only, rather mixture with the $t$-channel production mode allows us to access to the higher Higgs boson mass region than current $s$-channel based searches at the LHC. This gives complementary path to cover the parameter spaces in LFV couplings.

Constraints on Higgs boson properties using WW^{*}(rightarrow enu mu nu )jj production in 36.1,mathrm{fb}^{-1} of sqrt{s}=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

This article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the WW^*(rightarrow enu mu nu )jj final state, based on a dataset corresponding to {36.1}{{mathrm{fb}}^{-1}} of sqrt{s}=13 TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon–gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs–gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of tan (alpha ) = 0.0 pm 0.4 (mathrm {stat.}) pm 0.3 (mathrm {syst.}) is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised W and Z bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be a_mathrm {L}=0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}(stat.)^{+0.09}_{-0.17}(syst.) and a_{mathrm {T}}=1.2 pm 0.4 (stat.) ^{+0.2}_{-0.3} (syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in kappa _{VV}= 0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}(stat.)^{+0.09}_{-0.17}(syst.) and epsilon _{VV} =0.13^{+0.28}_{-0.20} (stat.)^{+0.08}_{-0.10}(syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.

Search for charged Higgs bosons produced in vector boson fusion processes and decaying into vector boson pairs in proton\u2013proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13,{text {TeV}}

A search for charged Higgs bosons produced in vector boson fusion processes and decaying into vector bosons, using proton–proton collisions at sqrt{s}=13,{text {TeV}} at the LHC, is reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137,{text {fb}}^{-1} collected with the CMS detector. Events are selected by requiring two or three electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass. No excess of events with respect to the standard model background predictions is observed. Model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are reported on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for vector boson fusion production of charged Higgs bosons as a function of mass, from 200 to 3000,{text {GeV}}. The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi–Machacek model.

Measurements of Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quarks from vector boson fusion production with the ATLAS experiment at sqrt{s}=13,text {TeV}

The paper presents a measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson decaying to b-quark pairs in the vector boson fusion (VBF) production mode. A sample corresponding to 126 hbox {fb}^{-1} of sqrt{s} = 13,text {TeV} proton–proton collision data, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, is analyzed utilizing an adversarial neural network for event classification. The signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model for VBF Higgs production, is measured to be 0.95^{+0.38}_{-0.36} , corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.6 (2.8) standard deviations from the background only hypothesis. The results are additionally combined with an analysis of Higgs bosons decaying to b-quarks, produced via VBF in association with a photon.

Studies of nonresonant Higgs pair production at electron-proton colliders

The measurement of the Higgs quartic coupling modifier between a Higgs boson pair and a vector boson pair, κ2V, is expected to be achieved from vector-boson fusion (VBF) production of a Higgs boson pair. However, this process involves another unmeasured parameter, the trilinear Higgs self-coupling modifier κλ. A sensitivity analysis should target both parameters. Since the LHC cannot avoid the gluon fusion pollution, which becomes severe for non-SM κλ, an electron-proton collider is more appropriate for the comprehensive measurement. In this regard, we study the VBF production of a Higgs boson pair in the bb¯bb¯ final state at the LHeC and FCC-he. Performing detailed analysis using simulated dataset, we devise the search strategy specialized at the LHeC and FCC-he and give a prediction for the sensitivity to both κ2V and κλ. We find that the two electron-proton colliders have high potential: the LHeC has similar exclusion prospects as the HL-LHC; the FCC-he is extremely efficient, excluding the parameter space outside κ2V∈[0.8,1.2] and κλ∈[1,2.5] at 95% C.L. for the total luminosity of 10 ab−1 and 10% uncertainty on the background yields.

Probing electroweak phase transition with multi-TeV muon colliders and gravitational waves

We study the complementarity of the proposed multi-TeV muon colliders and the near-future gravitational wave (GW) detectors to the first order electroweak phase transition (FOEWPT), taking the real scalar extended Standard Model as the representative model. A detailed collider simulation shows the FOEWPT parameter space can be greatly probed via the vector boson fusion production of the singlet, and its subsequent decay to the di-Higgs or di-boson channels. Especially, almost all the parameter space yielding detectable GW signals can be probed by the muon colliders. Therefore, if we could detect stochastic GWs in the future, a muon collider could provide a hopeful crosscheck to identify their origin. On the other hand, there is considerable parameter space that escapes GW detections but is within the reach of the muon colliders. The precision measurements of Higgs couplings could also probe the FOEWPT parameter space efficiently.

Differential cross-section measurements for the electroweak production of dijets in association with a Z boson in proton\u2013proton collisions at ATLAS

Differential cross-section measurements are presented for the electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z boson. These measurements are sensitive to the vector-boson fusion production mechanism and provide a fundamental test of the gauge structure of the Standard Model. The analysis is performed using proton–proton collision data collected by ATLAS at sqrt{s}=13 hbox {TeV} and with an integrated luminosity of 139 hbox {fb}^{-1}. The differential cross-sections are measured in the Zrightarrow ell ^+ell ^- decay channel (ell =e,mu ) as a function of four observables: the dijet invariant mass, the rapidity interval spanned by the two jets, the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets, and the transverse momentum of the dilepton pair. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are sufficiently precise to distinguish between different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions calculated using Powheg+Pythia8, Herwig7+Vbfnlo and Sherpa 2.2. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions using a dimension-six effective field theory. The measurement of the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets is found to be particularly sensitive to the interference between the Standard Model and dimension-six scattering amplitudes and provides a direct test of charge-conjugation and parity invariance in the weak-boson self-interactions.

Phenomenology of vector-like leptons with Deep Learning at the Large Hadron Collider

In this paper, a model inspired by Grand Unification principles featuring three generations of vector-like fermions, new Higgs doublets and a rich neutrino sector at the low scale is presented. Using the state-of-the-art Deep Learning techniques we perform the first phenomenological analysis of this model focusing on the study of new charged vector-like leptons (VLLs) and their possible signatures at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In our numerical analysis we consider signal events for vector-boson fusion and VLL pair production topologies, both involving a final state containing a pair of charged leptons of different flavor and two sterile neutrinos that provide a missing energy. We also consider the case of VLL single production where, in addition to a pair of sterile neutrinos, the final state contains only one charged lepton. We propose a novel method to identify missing transverse energy vectors by comparing the detector response with Monte-Carlo simulated data. All calculated observables are provided as data sets for Deep Learning analysis, where a neural network is constructed, based on results obtained via an evolutive algorithm, whose objective is to maximise either the accuracy metric or the Asimov significance for different masses of the VLL. Taking into account the effect of the three analysed topologies, we have found that the combined significance for the observation of new VLLs at the high-luminosity LHC can range from 5.7σ, for a mass of 1.25 TeV, all the way up to 28σ if the VLL mass is 200 GeV. We have also shown that by the end of the LHC Run-III a 200 GeV VLL can be excluded with a confidence of 8.8 standard deviations. The results obtained show that our model can be probed well before the end of the LHC operations and, in particular, providing important phenomenological information to constrain the energy scale at which new gauge symmetries emergent from the considered Grand Unification picture can be manifest.

Tree-level interference in vector boson fusion production of Vh

Vector boson scattering is a well known probe of electroweak symmetry breaking. Here we study a related process of two electroweak vector bosons scattering into a vector boson and a Higgs boson ($VV \rightarrow Vh, V=W,Z$). This process exhibits tree level interference and grows with energy if the Higgs couplings to electroweak bosons deviate from their Standard Model values. Therefore, this process is particularly sensitive to the relative sign of the ratio of the coupling between the Higgs and the $W$ and $Z$, $\lambda_{WZ}$. In this work we show that a high energy lepton collider is well suited to study this process through vector boson fusion, estimate the potential sensitivity to this ratio, and show that a relatively modest amount of data can exclude $\lambda_{WZ} \simeq -1$.

Search for a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the boosted \u03bc\u03bc\u03c4\u03c4 final state in proton-proton collisions at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

A search for a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson (a) decaying from the 125 GeV (or a heavier) scalar Higgs boson (H) is performed using the 2016 LHC proton-proton collision data at sqrt{s} = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1, collected by the CMS experiment. The analysis considers gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production of the H, followed by the decay H → aa → μμττ, and considers pseudoscalar masses in the range 3.6 < ma< 21 GeV. Because of the large mass difference between the H and the a bosons and the small masses of the a boson decay products, both the μμ and the ττ pairs have high Lorentz boost and are collimated. The ττ reconstruction efficiency is increased by modifying the standard technique for hadronic τ lepton decay reconstruction to account for a nearby muon. No significant signal is observed. Model-independent limits are set at 95% confidence level, as a function of ma, on the branching fraction (ℬ) for H → aa → μμττ, down to 1.5 (2.0) × 10−4 for mH = 125 (300) GeV. Model-dependent limits on ℬ(H → aa) are set within the context of two Higgs doublets plus singlet models, with the most stringent results obtained for Type-III models. These results extend current LHC searches for heavier a bosons that decay to resolved lepton pairs and provide the first such bounds for an H boson with a mass above 125 GeV.

Test of CP invariance in vector-boson fusion production of the Higgs boson in the H → ττ channel in proton–proton collisions at [formula omitted] with the ATLAS detector

A test of CP invariance in Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion is performed in the H→ττ decay channel. This test uses the Optimal Observable method and is carried out using 36.1fb−1 of s=13TeV proton–proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Contributions from CP-violating interactions between the Higgs boson and electroweak gauge bosons are described by an effective field theory, in which the parameter d˜ governs the strength of CP violation. No sign of CP violation is observed in the distributions of the Optimal Observable, and d˜ is constrained to the interval [−0.090, 0.035] at the 68% confidence level (CL), compared to an expected interval of d˜∈[−0.035,0.033] based upon the Standard Model prediction. No constraints can be set on d˜ at 95% CL, while an expected 95% CL interval of d˜∈[−0.21,0.15] for the Standard Model hypothesis was expected.

Searches for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles with compressed mass spectra in s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents results of searches for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in models with compressed mass spectra. The searches use 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with missing transverse momentum and two same-flavor, oppositely charged, low transverse momentum leptons are selected, and are further categorized by the presence of hadronic activity from initial-state radiation or a topology compatible with vector-boson fusion processes. The data are found to be consistent with predictions from the Standard Model. The results are interpreted using simplified models of $R$-parity-conserving supersymmetry in which the lightest supersymmetric partner is a neutralino with a mass similar to the lightest chargino, the second-to-lightest neutralino or the slepton. Lower limits on the masses of charginos in different simplified models range from 193 GeV to 240 GeV for moderate mass splittings, and extend down to mass splittings of 1.5 GeV to 2.4 GeV at the LEP chargino bounds (92.4 GeV). Similar lower limits on degenerate light-flavor sleptons extend up to masses of 251 GeV and down to mass splittings of 550 MeV. Constraints on vector-boson fusion production of electroweak SUSY states are also presented.