Search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons in the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes

Chatrchyan, S. and Khachatryan, V. and Sirunyan, A. M. and Tumasyan, A. and Adam, W. and Bergauer, T. and Dragicevic, M. and Erö, J. and Fabjan, C. and Friedl, M. and Frühwirth, R. and Ghete, V. M. and Hartl, C. and Hörmann, N. and Hrubec, J. and Jeitler, M. and Kiesenhofer, W. and Knünz, V. and Krammer, M. and Krätschmer, I. and Liko, D. and Mikulec, I. and Rabady, D. and Rahbaran, B. and Rohringer, H. and Schöfbeck, R. and Strauss, J. and Taurok, A. and Treberer-Treberspurg, W. and Waltenberger, W. and Filipovic, Nicolas and Bencze, György and Hajdu, Csaba and Hidas, Pál and Horváth, Dezső and Siklér, Ferenc and Veszprémi, Viktor and Vesztergombi, György and Zsigmond, Anna Júlia and Béni, Noémi Tekla and Molnár, József and Pálinkás, József and Szillási, Zoltán and Karancsi, János and Raics, Péter and Trócsányi, Zoltán and Ujvári, Balázs and Veres, Gábor (2014) Search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons in the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes. EUROPEAN PHYSICAL JOURNAL C, 74 (8). ISSN 1434-6044

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Abstract

A search for invisible decays of Higgs bosons is performed using the vector boson fusion and associated ZH production modes. In the ZH mode, the Z boson is re- quired to decay to a pair of charged leptons or a bb quark pair. The searches use the 8 TeV pp collision dataset collected by the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 19.7 fb−1. Certain channels include data from 7 TeV collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb−1. The searches are sensitive to non-standard-model invisible decays of the recently observed Higgs boson, as well as additional Higgs bosons with similar production modes and large invisible branching fractions. In all channels, the observed data are consistent with the expected standard model backgrounds. Limits are set on the production cross section times invisible branching fraction, as a function of the Higgs boson mass, for the vector boson fusion and ZH production modes. By combining all channels, and assuming standard model Higgs boson cross sections and acceptances, the observed (expected) upper limit on the invisible branching fraction at mH = 125 GeV is found to be 0.58 (0.44) at 95% confidence level. We interpret this limit in terms of a Higgs- portal model of dark matter interactions.

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