Search for a light charged Higgs boson decaying to a W boson and a CP-odd Higgs boson in final states with e$\mu \mu$ or $\mu \mu \mu$ in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for a light charged Higgs boson (H${}^{+}$) decaying to a W boson and a CP-odd Higgs boson (A) in final states with e$\mu \mu$ or $\mu \mu \mu$ is performed using data from pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV, recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb${}^{-1}$. In this search, it is assumed that the H${}^{+}$ boson is produced in decays of top quarks, and the A boson decays to two oppositely charged muons. The presence of signals for H${}^{+}$ boson masses between 100 and 160 GeV and A boson masses between 15 and 75 GeV is investigated. No evidence for the production of the H${}^{+}$ boson is found. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are obtained on the combined branching fraction for the decay chain t $\to$ bH${}^{+}$ $\to$ bW${}^{+}$A $\to$ bW${}^{+}{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$, of 1.9 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$ to 8.6 $\times$ 10${}^{-6}$, depending on the masses of the H${}^{+}$ and A bosons. These are the first limits for these decay modes of the H${}^{+}$ and A bosons.

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/HIG-18-020 (CMS Public Pages)