Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

We report a search for Higgs bosons that are produced via vector boson fusion and subsequently decay into invisible particles. The experimental signature is an energetic jet pair with invariant mass of O(1)TeV and O(100)GeV missing transverse momentum. The analysis uses 36.1 fb −1 of pp collision data at s=13TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. In the signal region the 2252 observed events are consistent with the background estimation. Assuming a 125GeV scalar particle with Standard Model cross sections, the upper limit on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson decay into invisible particles is 0.37 at 95% confidence level where 0.28 was expected. This limit is interpreted in Higgs portal models to set bounds on the WIMP–nucleon scattering cross section. We also consider invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses up to 3TeV for which the upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction are in the range of 0.3–1.7pb.

Abstract:

A search for Higgs boson pair production in the b ¯bWW∗ decay mode is performed in the b ¯b`νqq final state using 36.1 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at a centreof-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of events beyond the background expectation is found. Upper limits on the non-resonant pp → HH production cross section of 10 pb and on the resonant production cross section as a function of the HH invariant mass are obtained. Resonant production limits are set for scalar and spin-2 graviton hypotheses in the mass range 500 to 3000 GeV.