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At least 19 records

Combination of searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson using 139 fb –1 of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ TeV collected with the ATLAS experiment

Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the production of dark matter particles at the LHC. Sufficiently light dark matter particles may be produced in decays of the Higgs boson that would appear invisible to the detector. This Letter presents a statistical combination of searches for $H$ → invisible decays where multiple production modes of the Standard Model Higgs boson are considered. These searches are performed with the ATLAS detector using 139 fb –1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre–of–mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at the LHC. In combination with the results at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV and 8 TeV, an upper limit on the $H$ → invisible branching ratio of 0.107 (0.077) at the 95% confidence level is observed (expected). These results are also interpreted in the context of models where the 125 GeV Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross-section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for associated production of a Z boson with an invisibly decaying Higgs boson or dark matter candidates at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson as well as searches for dark matter candidates, produced together with a leptonically decaying Z boson, are presented. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, delivered by the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 and recorded by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming Standard Model cross-sections for ZH production, the observed (expected) upper limit on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to invisible particles is found to be 19% (19%) at the 95% confidence level. Exclusion limits are also set for simplified dark matter models and two-Higgs-doublet models with an additional pseudoscalar mediator.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for a muonphilic scalar X 0 or vector X 1 via J / ψ → μ + μ − + invisible decays at BESIII

A light scalar X 0 or vector X 1 particles have been introduced as a possible explanation for the ( g − 2 ) μ anomaly and dark matter phenomena. Using ( 8.998 ± 0.039 ) × 10 9 J / ψ events collected by the BESIII detector, we search for a light muon philic scalar X 0 or vector X 1 in the processes J / ψ → μ + μ − X 0 , 1 with X 0 , 1 invisible decays. No obvious signal is found, and the upper limits on the coupling g 0 , 1 ′ between the muon and the X 0 , 1 particles are set to be between 1.1 × 10 − 3 and 1.0 × 10 − 2 for the X 0 , 1 mass in the range of 1 < M ( X 0 , 1 ) < 1000 MeV / c 2 at 90% credibility level. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Astronomy & Astrophysics↗

Search for invisible decays of a dark photon using e + e – annihilation data at BESIII

We report a search for a dark photon using 14.9 fb –1 of e + e – annihilation data taken at center-of-mass energies from 4.13 to 4.60 GeV with the BESIII detector operated at the BEPCII storage ring. The dark photon is assumed to be produced in the radiative annihilation process of e + e – and to predominantly decay into light dark matter particles, which escape from the detector undetected. The mass range from 1.5 to 2.9 GeV is scanned for the dark photon candidate, and no significant signal is observed. The mass dependent upper limits at the 90% confidence level on the coupling strength parameter ϵ for a dark photon coupling with an ordinary photon vary between 1.6 x 10 –3 and 5.7 x 10 –3 .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Measurement of the Z boson differential production cross section using its invisible decay mode (Z$\nu\bar{\nu}$) in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV

Measurements of the total and differential fiducial cross sections for the Z boson decaying into two neutrinos are presented at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were collected by the CMS detector in 2016 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. In these measurements, events are selected containing an imbalance in transverse momentum and one or more energetic jets. The fiducial differential cross section is measured as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum. The results are combined with a previous measurement of charged-lepton decays of the Z boson. The measured total fiducial cross section for events with Z boson transverse momentum greater than 200 GeV is $ {3000}_{-170}^{+180} $ fb.[graphic not available: see fulltext]

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Observation of electroweak production of two jets in association with an isolated photon and missing transverse momentum, and search for a Higgs boson decaying into invisible particles at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the electroweak production of two jets in association with a Zγ pair, with the Z boson decaying into two neutrinos. It also presents a search for invisible or partially invisible decays of a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV produced through vector-boson fusion with a photon in the final state. These results use data from LHC proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 . The event signature, shared by all benchmark processes considered for the measurements and searches, is characterized by a significant amount of unbalanced transverse momentum and a photon in the final state, in addition to a pair of forward jets. Electroweak $Zγ$ production in association with two jets is observed in this final state with a significance of 5.2 (5.1 expected) standard deviations. The measured fiducial cross-section for this process is 1.31 ± 0.29 fb. An observed (expected) upper limit of 0.37 (0.34$^{+0.15}_{-0.10}$) at 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio of a 125 GeV Higgs boson to invisible particles, assuming the Standard Model production cross-section. The signature is also interpreted in the context of decays of a Higgs boson into a photon and a dark photon. An observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on the branching ratio for this decay is set at 0.018 (0.017$^{+0.007}_{-0.005}$), assuming the Standard Model production cross-section for a 125 GeV Higgs boson.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Limits on non-relativistic matter during Big-bang nucleosynthesis

Big-bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) probes the cosmic mass-energy density at temperatures ~10 MeV to ~100 keV. Here, we consider the effect of a cosmic matter-like species that is non-relativistic and pressureless during BBN. Such a component must decay; doing so during BBN can alter the baryon-to-photon ratio, η, and the effective number of neutrino species. We use light element abundances and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) constraints on η and N ν to place constraints on such a matter component. We find that electromagnetic decays heat the photons relative to neutrinos, and thus dilute the effective number of relativistic species to N eff < 3 for the case of three Standard Model neutrino species. Intriguingly, likelihood results based on Planck CMB data alone find N ν = 2.800 ± 0.294, and when combined with standard BBN and the observations of D and 4 He give N ν = 2.898 ± 0.141. While both results are consistent with the Standard Model, we find that a nonzero abundance of electromagnetically decaying matter gives a better fit to these results. Our best-fit results are for a matter species that decays entirely electromagnetically with a lifetime τ X = 0.89 sec and pre-decay density that is a fraction ξ = (ρ X /ρ rad |10 MeV = 0.0026 of the radiation energy density at 10 MeV; similarly good fits are found over a range where ξτ X 1/2 is constant. On the other hand, decaying matter often spoils the BBN+CMB concordance, and we present limits in the (τ X ,ξ) plane for both electromagnetic and invisible decays. For dark (invisible) decays, standard BBN (i.e. ξ = 0) supplies the best fit. We end with a brief discussion of the impact of future measurements including CMB-S4.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Search for invisible Higgs-boson decays in events with vector-boson fusion signatures using 139 fb -1 of proton-proton data recorded by the ATLAS experiment

A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 fb -1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of 0.145 is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of 0.103. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 GeV to 2 TeV are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 pb for a scalar boson mass of 50 GeV to 0.1 pb at a mass of 2 TeV.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Search for π 0 decays to invisible particles

The NA62 experiment at the CERN SPS reports a study of a sample of 4 × 10 9 tagged π0 mesons from K + → π + π 0 (γ), searching for the decay of the π 0 to invisible particles. No signal is observed in excess of the expected background fluctuations. An upper limit of 4.4 × 10 –9 is set on the branching ratio at 90% confidence level, improving on previous results by a factor of 60. This result can also be interpreted as a model- independent upper limit on the branching ratio for the decay K + → π + X, where X is a particle escaping detection with mass in the range 0.110–0.155 GeV/c 2 and rest lifetime greater than 100 ps. Model-dependent upper limits are obtained assuming X to be an axion-like particle with dominant fermion couplings or a dark scalar mixing with the Standard Model Higgs boson.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Neutrino Decay in Oscillation at NOvA

In the realm of precise measurements regarding neutrino oscillation parameters, numerous present and forthcoming experiments explore physics concepts beyond the SM. One such endeavor is the investigation of neutrino's invisible decay, a new focus of the NOvA experiment. Our primary objective is to assess the sensitivity of NOvA to detect invisible neutrino decay within oscillations. Furthermore, we aim to observe how this potential decay affects the probability of oscillation. For this poster we will present part of this research due is a project in progress.

Barros, Andrea [U. Atlantico, Barranquilla]↗

Dark photon and dark Z mediated B meson decays

We study flavor changing neutral current decays of B and K mesons in the dark U(1) D model, with the dark photon/dark Z mass between 10 MeV and 2 GeV. Although the model provides an improved fit (compared to the standard model) to the differential decay distributions of B → K ($\ast$) ℓ + ℓ – , with ℓ = μ, e, and B s → $\phi$μ + μ – , the allowed parameter space is ruled out by measurements of atomic parity violation, K + → μ + + invisible decay, and ${B}_s-{\overline{B}}_s$ mixing, among others. To evade constraints from low energy data, we extend the model to allow for (1) additional invisible Z D decay, (2) a direct vector coupling of Z D to muons, and (3) a direct coupling of Z D to both muons and electrons, with the electron coupling fine-tuned to cancel the Z D coupling to electrons via mixing. We find that only the latter case survives all constraints.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗

Collider searches for scalar singlets across lifetimes

Spin-0 singlets arise in well-motivated extensions of the Standard Model. Their lifetime determines the best search strategies at hadron and lepton colliders. To cover a large range of singlet decay lengths, we investigate bounds from Higgs decays into a pair of singlets, considering signatures of invisible decays, displaced and delayed jets, and coupling fits of untagged decays. We examine the generic scalar singlet and the relaxion, and derive a matching as well as qualitative differences between them. For each model, we discuss its natural parameter space and the searches probing it.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗