Cross-section measurements of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of τ-leptons in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

ATLAS Collaboration, Paul Newman

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Abstract

A measurement of production cross sections of the Higgs boson in proton-proton collisions is presented in the H → ττ decay channel. The analysis is performed using 36.1 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV. All combinations of leptonic (τ → ℓvv¯ with ℓ = e, μ) and hadronic (τ → hadrons  v) τ decays are considered. The H → ττ signal over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is established with an observed (expected) significance of 4.4 (4.1) standard deviations. Combined with results obtained using data taken at 7 and 8 TeV center-of-mass energies, the observed (expected) significance amounts to 6.4 (5.4) standard deviations and constitutes an observation of H → ττ decays. Using the data taken at √s = 13 TeV, the total cross section in the H → ττ decay channel is measured to be 3.77 +0.60−0.59 (stat) +0.87−0.74 (syst) pb, for a Higgs boson of mass 125 GeV assuming the relative contributions of its production modes as predicted by the Standard Model. Total cross sections in the H → ττ decay channel are determined separately for vector-boson-fusion production and gluon-gluon-fusion production to be σVBFH→ττ = 0.28 ± 0.09 (stat) +0.11−0.09 (syst) pb and σggFH→ττ = 3.1 ± 1.0 (stat)+1.6−1.3 (syst) pb, respectively. Similarly, results of a fit are reported in the framework of simplified template cross sections. All measurements are in agreement with Standard Model expectations.
Original languageEnglish
Article number072001
Number of pages39
JournalPhysical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology
Volume99
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Apr 2019

Bibliographical note

58 pages in total, author list starting page 42, 13 figures (2 of those in the Appendix), 11 tables, submitted to Phys. Rev. D. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HIGG-2017-07/

Keywords

  • hep-ex

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