Search for $H \to \gamma\gamma$ produced in association with top quarks and constraints on the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson using data taken at 7 TeV and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper searches for Higgs bosons produced with top quarks via the diphoton decay mode, setting limits on production cross sections and the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling using ATLAS data at 7 and 8 TeV.

Contribution

It provides the first constraints on the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling using diphoton decay channel data from ATLAS at 7 and 8 TeV.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Upper limit on $t\bar{t}H$ production is 6.7 times the Standard Model prediction.

Yukawa coupling constrained between -1.3 and +8.0 times the Standard Model value.

Abstract

A search is performed for Higgs bosons produced in association with top quarks using the diphoton decay mode of the Higgs boson. Selection requirements are optimized separately for leptonic and fully hadronic final states from the top quark decays. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.5 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ at 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess over the background prediction is observed and upper limits are set on the $t\bar{t}H$ production cross section. The observed exclusion upper limit at 95% confidence level is 6.7 times the predicted Standard Model cross section value. In addition, limits are set on the strength of the Yukawa coupling between the top quark and the Higgs boson, taking into account the dependence of the $t\bar{t}H$ and $tH$ cross sections as well as the $H \to \gamma\gamma$ branching fraction on the Yukawa coupling. Lower and upper limits at 95% confidence level are set at -1.3 and +8.0 times the Yukawa coupling strength in the Standard Model.