Search for Higgs boson decay to a charm quark-antiquark pair in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a charm quark-antiquark pair, H $\to$ $\mathrm{c}\bar{\mathrm{c}}$, produced in association with a leptonically decaying V (W or Z) boson is presented. The search is performed with proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb${}^{-1}$. Novel charm jet identification and analysis methods using machine learning techniques are employed. The analysis is validated by searching for Z $\to$ $\mathrm{c}\bar{\mathrm{c}}$ in VZ events, leading to its first observation at a hadron collider with a significance of 5.7 standard deviations. The observed (expected) upper limit on $\sigma$(VH)$\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ $\mathrm{c}\bar{\mathrm{c}}$) is 0.94 (0.50 ${}_{-0.15}^{+0.22}$) pb at 95% confidence level (CL), corresponding to 14 (7.6 ${}_{-2.3}^{+3.4}$) times the standard model prediction. For the Higgs-charm Yukawa coupling modifier, ${\kappa }_{\mathrm{c}}$, the observed (expected) 95% CL interval is 1.1 $<$ $|{\kappa }_{\mathrm{C}}|$ $<$ 5.5 ($|{\kappa }_{\mathrm{c}}|$ $<$ 3.4), the most stringent constraint to date.

arXiv commentReplaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables, including additional supplementary figures and tables, can be found at http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/HIG-21-008 (CMS Public Pages)

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