Search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → 𝒜𝒜 with 𝒜 → γγ in events with a semi-merged topology in proton-proton collisions at √(s)=13 TeV

2026/01/01 by CMS Collaboration, A Hayrapetyan, В. Макаренко +97 · 2 voices
Physics and Astronomy · #High-Energy Particle Collisions Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #hep-ex

paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep07(2026)119

published as JHEP 07 (2026) 119 · Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables can be found at http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/EXO-24-025 (CMS Public Pages)

arxiv published 2026/01/01 · openalex publication_date 2026/07/13 · openalex created_date 2026/07/24 · arxiv created 2026/07/28 · arxiv updated 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/02

Abstract

A bstract A search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → 𝒜𝒜, with 𝒜 → γγ is presented, using events with a semi-merged topology. One of the hypothetical particles, 𝒜, is assumed to decay promptly into a semi-merged diphoton system reconstructed as a single photon-like object, while the other 𝒜 decays into two resolved photons. The search is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at √(s)=13 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:msqrt> <mml:mi>s</mml:mi> </mml:msqrt> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>13</mml:mn> </mml:math> TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb − 1 . The data agree with the standard model background expectation. Upper limits are set on the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and the branching fraction, σ (pp → H) ℬ(H → 𝒜𝒜 → 4γ), which range from 0.264 to 0.005 pb at 95% confidence level, for 𝒜 masses in the range 1 &lt; m 𝒜 &lt; 15 GeV. These limits are the most stringent to date in the 1–5 GeV m 𝒜 range.

Citations

• Combined measurements and interpretations of Higgs boson production and decay in proton-proton collisions at √(s) = 13 TeV
• Axion Dark Matter: What is it and Why Now?
• Graph Neural Networks for Particle Reconstruction in High Energy Physics detectors
• A Dynamic Reduction Network for Point Clouds
• Dynamic Graph CNN for Learning on Point Clouds
• Dynamic Graph CNN for Learning on Point Clouds
• Atlas
• The Strong CP Problem and Axions
• Presentation of search results: theCLstechnique

Discussions

• This #CMSPaper searches for a heavy particle decaying into pairs of undiscovered light bosons, which in turn decay into photons that can partially overlap. This is technically a difficult signature be [bsky, 4 points, 0 comments]
• #CMSpaper: Search for exotic Higgs boson decays H → 𝒜𝒜 with 𝒜 → γγ in events with a semi-merged topology in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV (arXiv:2601.00183) https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.001 [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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