Search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays to four-lepton final states in proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV

A search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays is conducted in the four-lepton final state. The decay is assumed to proceed via a pair of beyond the standard model particles, or one such particle and a Z boson. The search uses proton–proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1, at a center-of-mass energy √s = 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the standard model expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on model-independent Higgs boson decay branching fractions. Additionally, limits on dark photon and axion-like particle production, based on two specific models, are reported

Precision luminosity measurement in proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV in 2015 and 2016 at CMS

The measurement of the luminosity recorded by the CMS detector installed at LHC interaction point 5, using proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV in 2015 and 2016, is reported. The absolute luminosity scale is measured for individual bunch crossings using beam-separation scans (the van der Meer method), with a relative precision of 1.3 and 1.0% in 2015 and 2016, respectively. The dominant sources of uncertainty are related to residual differences between the measured beam positions and the ones provided by the operational settings of the LHC magnets, the factorizability of the proton bunch spatial density functions in the coordinates transverse to the beam direction, and the modeling of the effect of electromagnetic interactions among protons in the colliding bunches. When applying the van der Meer calibration to the entire run periods, the integrated luminosities when CMS was fully operational are 2.27 and 36.3 fb$^{-1}$ in 2015 and 2016, with a relative precision of 1.6 and 1.2%, respectively. These are among the most precise luminosity measurements at bunched-beam hadron colliders

Measurements of production cross sections of WZ and same-sign WW boson pairs in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV

The first measurements of production cross sections of polarized same-sign W$^{±}$ W$^{±}$ boson pairs in proton-proton collisions are reported. The measurements are based on a data sample collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137fb$^{-1}$. Events are selected by requiring exactly two same-sign leptons, electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass to enhance the contribution of same-sign W$^{±}$ W$^{±}$ scattering events. An observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.17 (0.88) fbis set on the production cross section for longitudinally polarized same-sign W$^{±}$ W$^{±}$ boson pairs. The electroweak production of same-sign W$^{±}$ W$^{±}$ boson pairs with at least one of the W bosons longitudinally polarized is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 2.3 (3.1) standard deviations

Search for decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a Z boson and a ρ or ϕ meson

Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a Z boson and a ρ^0(770) or ϕ(1020) meson are searched for using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC at √s = 13 TeV. The analysed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb⁻¹. Events are selected in which the Z boson decays into a pair of electrons or a pair of muons, and the ρ and ϕ mesons decay into pairs of pions and kaons, respectively. No significant excess above the background model is observed. As different polarization states are possible for the decay products of the Z boson and ρ or ϕ mesons, affecting the signal acceptance, scenarios in which the decays are longitudinally or transversely polarized are considered. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson branching fractions into Zρ and Zϕ are determined to be 1.04–1.31% and 0.31–0.40%, respectively, where the ranges reflect the considered polarization scenarios; these values are 740–940 and 730–950 times larger than the respective standard model expectations. These results constitute the first experimental limits on the two decay channels

Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton–proton collisions at √s=13Te

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton–proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on the model, the combined result excludes a top squark mass up to 1325GeV for a massless neutralino, and a neutralino mass up to 700GeV for a top squark mass of 1150GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420GeV

Measurements of the differential cross sections of the production of Z + jets and γ + jets and of Z boson emission collinear with a jet in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

Measurements of the differential cross sections of Z + jets and γ + jets production, and their ratio, are presented as a function of the boson transverse momentum. Measurements are also presented of the angular distribution between the Z boson and the closest jet. The analysis is based on pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1 recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The results, corrected for detector effects, are compared with various theoretical predictions. In general, the predictions at higher orders in perturbation theory show better agreement with the measurements. This work provides the first measurement of the ratio of the differential cross sections of Z + jets and γ + jets production at 13 TeV, as well as the first direct measurement of Z bosons emitted collinearly with a jet

Search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays to four-lepton final states in proton–proton collisions at s=13 TeV\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}

A search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays is conducted in the four-lepton final state. The decay is assumed to proceed via a pair of beyond the standard model particles, or one such particle and a Z boson. The search uses proton–proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137fb−1, at a center-of-mass energy s√=13TeV. No significant deviation from the standard model expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on model-independent Higgs boson decay branching fractions. Additionally, limits on dark photon and axion-like particle production, based on two specific models, are reported

Electron and photon reconstruction and identification with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC

The performance is presented of the reconstruction and identification algorithms for electrons and photons with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The reported results are based on proton-proton collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and recorded in 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb(-1). Results obtained from lead-lead collision data collected at root S-NN = 5.02 TeV are also presented. Innovative techniques are used to reconstruct the electron and photon signals in the detector and to optimize the energy resolution. Events with electrons and photons in the final state are used to measure the energy resolution and energy scale uncertainty in the recorded events. The measured energy resolution for electrons produced in Z boson decays in proton-proton collision data ranges from 2 to 5%, depending on electron pseudorapidity and energy loss through bremsstrahlung in the detector material. The energy scale in the same range of energies is measured with an uncertainty smaller than 0.1 (0.3)% in the barrel (endcap) region in proton-proton collisions and better than 1(3)% in the barrel (endcap) region in heavy ion collisions. The timing resolution for electrons from Z boson decays with the full 2016-2018 proton-proton collision data set is measured to be 200 ps.Peer reviewe