Search for rare decays of the Z and Higgs bosons to a J/ψ or ψ(2S) meson and a photon in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV

A search is presented for rare decays of the Image 1 and Higgs bosons to a photon and a Image 2 or a Image 3 meson, with the charmonium state subsequentially decaying to a pair of muons. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 123fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. No evidence for branching fractions of these rare decay channels larger than predicted in the standard model is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set: Image 4, Image 5, Image 6, and Image 7. The ratio of the Higgs boson coupling modifiers Image 8 is constrained to be in the interval (−157,+199) at 95% confidence level. Assuming Image 9, this interval becomes (−166,+208)

Search for the Higgs boson decays to a ρ0, ϕ, or K⁎0 meson and a photon in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV

Three rare decay processes of the Higgs boson to a ρ(770)0, ϕ(1020), or K⁎(892)0 meson and a photon are searched for using s=13TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Events are selected assuming the mesons decay into a pair of charged pions, a pair of charged kaons, or a charged kaon and pion, respectively. Depending on the Higgs boson production mode, different triggering and reconstruction techniques are adopted. The analyzed data sets correspond to integrated luminosities up to 138fb−1, depending on the reconstructed final state. After combining various data sets and categories, no significant excess above the background expectations is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson branching fractions into ρ(770)0γ, ϕ(1020)γ, and K⁎(892)0γ are determined to be 3.7×10−4, 3.0×10−4, and 3.0×10−4, respectively. In case of the ρ(770)0γ and ϕ(1020)γ channels, these are the most stringent experimental limits to date

Girth and groomed radius of jets recoiling against isolated photons in lead-lead and proton-proton collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV

This Letter presents the first measurements of the groomed jet radius Rg and the jet girth g in events with an isolated photon recoiling against a jet in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at the LHC at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The observables Rg and g provide a quantitative measure of how narrow or broad a jet is. The analysis uses PbPb and pp data samples with integrated luminosities of 1.7 nb−1 and 301 pb−1, respectively, collected with the CMS experiment in 2018 and 2017. Events are required to have a photon with transverse momentum pTγ>100 GeV and at least one jet back-to-back in azimuth with respect to the photon and with transverse momentum pTjet such that pTjet/pTγ>0.4. The measured Rg and g distributions are unfolded to the particle level, which facilitates the comparison between the PbPb and pp results and with theoretical predictions. It is found that jets with pTjet/pTγ>0.8, i.e., those that closely balance the photon pTγ, are narrower in PbPb than in pp collisions. Relaxing the selection to include jets with pTjet/pTγ>0.4 reduces the narrowing of the angular structure of jets in PbPb relative to the pp reference. This shows that selection bias effects associated with jet energy loss play an important role in the interpretation of jet substructure measurements

Identification of low-momentum muons in the CMS detector using multivariate techniques in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV

"Soft"muons with a transverse momentum below 10 GeV are featured in many processes studied by the CMS experiment, such as decays of heavy-flavor hadrons or rare tau lepton decays. Maximizing the selection efficiency for these muons, while simultaneously suppressing backgrounds from long-lived light-flavor hadron decays, is therefore important for the success of the CMS physics program. Multivariate techniques have been shown to deliver better muon identification performance than traditional selection techniques. To take full advantage of the large data set currently being collected during Run 3 of the CERN LHC, a new multivariate classifier based on a gradient-boosted decision tree has been developed. It offers a significantly improved separation of signal and background muons compared to a similar classifier used for the analysis of the Run 2 data. The performance of the new classifier is evaluated on a data set collected with the CMS detector in 2022 and 2023, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 62 fb-

Observation of nuclear modification of energy-energy correlators inside jets in heavy ion collisions

Energy-energy correlators are constructed by averaging the number of charged particle pairs within jets, weighted by the product of their transverse momenta, as a function of the angular separation of the particles within a pair. They are sensitive to a multitude of perturbative and nonperturbative quantum chromodynamics phenomena in high-energy particle collisions. Using lead-lead data recorded with the CMS detector, energy-energy correlators inside high transverse momentum jets are measured in heavy ion collisions for the first time. The data are obtained at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.70nb−1. A similar analysis is done for proton-proton collisions at the same center-of-mass energy to establish a reference. The ratio of lead-lead to proton-proton energy-energy correlators reveals significant jet substructure modifications in the quark-gluon plasma. The results are compared to different models that incorporate either color coherence or medium response effects, where the two effects predict similar substructure modifications

Angular analysis of the B0 → K⁎(892)0μ+μ− decay in proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV

A full set of optimized observables is measured in an angular analysis of the decay B0→K⁎(892)0μ+μ− using a sample of proton-proton collisions at s=13TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The analysis is performed in six bins of the squared invariant mass of the dimuon system, q2, over the range 1.1<q2<16GeV2. The results are among the most precise experimental measurements of the angular observables for this decay and are compared to a variety of predictions based on the standard model. Some of these predictions exhibit tension with the measurements

Search for light long-lived particles decaying to displaced jets in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13.6 TeV

A search for light long-lived particles (LLPs) decaying to displaced jets is presented, using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb−1, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2022. Novel trigger, reconstruction, and machine-learning techniques were developed for and employed in this search. After all selections, the observations are consistent with the background predictions. Limits are presented on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to LLPs that subsequently decay to quark pairs or tau lepton pairs. An improvement by up to a factor of 10 is achieved over previous limits for models with LLP masses smaller than 60 GeV and proper decay lengths smaller than 1 m. The first constraints are placed on the fraternal twin Higgs (FTH) and folded supersymmetry (FSUSY) models, where the lower bounds on the top quark partner mass reach up to 350 GeV for the FTH model and 250 GeV for the FSUSY model

Search for Nuclear Modifications of (Formula presented) Meson Production in (Formula presented)-Pb Collisions at (Formula presented)

Nuclear medium effects on (Formula presented) meson production are studied using the binary-collision scaled cross section ratio between events of different charged-particle multiplicities from proton-lead collisions. Data, collected by the CMS experiment in 2016 at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of (Formula presented), corresponding to an integrated luminosity of (Formula presented), were used. The scaling factors in the ratio are determined using a novel approach based on the (Formula presented) cross sections measured in the same events. The scaled ratio for (Formula presented) is consistent with unity for all event multiplicities, putting stringent constraints on nuclear modification for heavy flavor. © 2025 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration

Energy-scaling behavior of intrinsic transverse-momentum parameters in Drell-Yan simulation

An analysis is presented based on models of the intrinsic transverse momentum (intrinsic (Formula presented)) of partons in nucleons by studying the dilepton transverse momentum in Drell-Yan events. Using parameter tuning in event generators and existing data from fixed-target experiments and from hadron colliders, our investigation spans 3 orders of magnitude in center-of-mass energy and 2 orders of magnitude in dilepton invariant mass. The results show an energy-scaling behavior of the intrinsic (Formula presented) parameters, independent of the dilepton invariant mass at a given center-of-mass energy