Search for resonant pair production of Higgs bosons decaying to two bottom quark-antiquark pairs in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for a narrow resonance decaying into two Higgs bosons, each decaying into bottom quark pairs, using 8 TeV proton-proton collision data, setting limits on various hypothetical particles.

Contribution

It presents a model-independent search for Higgs pair resonances decaying to bottom quarks at 8 TeV, providing new exclusion limits on radion and Kaluza-Klein graviton models.

Findings

No evidence of a resonance was observed.

Excluded radion masses from 300 to 1100 GeV.

Excluded Kaluza-Klein graviton masses from 380 to 830 GeV.

Abstract

A model-independent search for a narrow resonance produced in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV and decaying to a pair of 125 GeV Higgs bosons that in turn each decays into bottom quark-antiquark pairs is performed by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 17.9 inverse femtobarns. No evidence for a signal is observed. Upper limits at a 95% confidence level on the production cross section for such a resonance, in the mass range from 270 to 1100 GeV, are reported. Using these results, a radion with decay constant of 1 TeV and mass from 300 to 1100 GeV, and a Kaluza-Klein graviton with mass from 380 to 830 GeV are excluded at a 95% confidence level.