Searches for heavy neutral leptons with machine learning at the CMS experiment

Abstract

Two recent searches for heavy neutral leptons (HNLs) performed with proton-proton collision data recorded at 13 TeV by the CMS experiment are presented. A prompt search in the trilepton final state analyses events with exactly three charged leptons originating from the primary proton-proton interaction vertex, targeting HNL masses between 10 GeV and 1.5 TeV. A displaced search in the dilepton final state analyses events with exactly one prompt charged lepton and a second nonprompt charged lepton associated with a jet and a secondary vertex, targeting HNL masses between 1 and 20 GeV. In both searches, machine-learning methods are applied to separate the HNL signal from the standard model background. Exclusion limits are set on the HNL coupling strength as a function of the HNL mass, covering different mass ranges and HNL scenarios. In several cases, the results exceed previous limits.

Contribution to the Proceedings of the 12th Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference (LHCP2024), Boston, USA, 3-7 June 2024

References in corpus (4)

• Search for heavy neutral leptons in final states with electrons, muons, and hadronically decaying tau leptons in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV
• Search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons decaying in the CMS muon detectors in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV
• Search for long-lived heavy neutral leptons with lepton flavour conserving or violating decays to a jet and a charged lepton
• Search for long-lived heavy neutrinos in the decays of B mesons produced in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV