Journal article

Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the γγb b ¯ Final State Using pp Collision Data at √s = 8 TeV from the ATLAS Detector

G Aad, B Abbott, J Abdallah, S Abdel Khalek, O Abdinov, R Aben, B Abi, M Abolins, OS Abouzeid, H Abramowicz, H Abreu, R Abreu, Y Abulaiti, BS Acharya, L Adamczyk, DL Adams, J Adelman, S Adomeit, T Adye, T Agatonovic-Jovin Show all

Physical Review Letters | Published : 2015

Abstract

Searches are performed for resonant and nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the γγbb¯ final state using 20 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. A 95% confidence level upper limit on the cross section times branching ratio of nonresonant production is set at 2.2 pb, while the expected limit is 1.0 pb. The difference derives from a modest excess of events, corresponding to 2.4 standard deviations from the background-only hypothesis. The limit observed in the search for a narrow X→hh resonance ranges between 0.7 and 3.5 pb as a function of the resonance mass.

Grants

Awarded by National Science Foundation


Funding Acknowledgements

We thank CERN for the very successful operation of the LHC, as well as the support staff from our institutions without whom ATLAS could not be operated efficiently. We acknowledge the support of ANPCyT, Argentina; YerPhI, Armenia; ARC, Australia; BMWFW and FWF, Austria; ANAS, Azerbaijan; SSTC, Belarus; CNPq and FAPESP, Brazil; NSERC, NRC, and CFI, Canada; CERN; CONICYT, Chile; CAS, MOST, and NSFC, China; COLCIENCIAS, Colombia; MSMT CR, MPO CR, and VSC CR, Czech Republic; DNRF, DNSRC, and Lundbeck Foundation, Denmark; EPLANET, ERC, and NSRF, European Union; IN2P3-CNRS, CEA-DSM/IRFU, France; GNSF, Georgia; BMBF, DFG, HGF, MPG, and AvH Foundation, Germany; GSRT and NSRF, Greece; ISF, MINERVA, GIF, I-CORE, and Benoziyo Center, Israel; INFN, Italy; MEXT and JSPS, Japan; CNRST, Morocco; FOM and NWO, Netherlands; BRF and RCN, Norway; MNiSW and NCN, Poland; GRICES and FCT, Portugal; MNE/IFA, Romania; MES of Russia and ROSATOM, Russian Federation; JINR; MSTD, Serbia; MSSR, Slovakia; ARRS and MIZS, Slovenia; DST/NRF, South Africa; MINECO, Spain; SRC andWallenberg Foundation, Sweden; SER, SNSF, and Cantons of Bern and Geneva, Switzerland; NSC, Taiwan; TAEK, Turkey; STFC, the Royal Society and Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom; U.S. DOE and NSF, U.S. The crucial computing support from all WLCG partners is acknowledged gratefully, in particular from CERN and the ATLAS Tier-1 facilities at TRIUMF (Canada), NDGF (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), CC-IN2P3 (France), KIT/GridKA (Germany), INFN-CNAF (Italy), NL-T1 (Netherlands), PIC (Spain), ASGC (Taiwan), RAL (United Kingdom), and BNL (U.S.), and in the Tier-2 facilities worldwide.