Search for new phenomena in events with at least three photons collected in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

Results of a search for new phenomena in events with at least three photons are reported. Data from proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb${}^{-1}$, were collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed data are well described by the Standard Model. Limits at the 95% confidence level on new phenomena are presented based on the rate of events in an inclusive signal region and a restricted signal region targeting the rare decay $Z\to 3\gamma$, as well as di-photon and tri-photon resonance searches. For a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to four photons via a pair of intermediate pseudoscalar particles ($a$), limits are found to be $\sigma \times \text{BR}(h\to aa)\times \text{BR}(a\to \gamma \gamma {)}^2<10^{-3}{\sigma }_{\text{SM}}$ for 10 GeV $<m_a<$ 62 GeV. Limits are also presented for Higgs boson-like scalars ($H$) for $m_H>$ 125 GeV, and for a $Z^{\prime }$ decaying to three photons via $Z^{\prime }\to a+\gamma \to 3\gamma$. Additionally, the observed limit on the branching ratio of the $Z$ boson decay to three photons is found to be BR$(Z\to 3\gamma )<2.2\times 10^{-6}$, a result five times stronger than the previous result from LEP.

20 pages plus author list + cover pages (37 pages total), 5 figures, 5 tables, submitted to EPJC; all figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/EXOT-2013-24/

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