Measurements of the Total and Differential Higgs Boson Production Cross Sections Combining the $H \rightarrow \gamma \gamma$ and $H \rightarrow ZZ ^{*}\rightarrow 4\ell$ Decay Channels at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with the ATLAS Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of Higgs boson production cross sections at 8 TeV using ATLAS data, combining two decay channels, and compares results with theoretical predictions.

Contribution

It provides the first combined measurement of total and differential Higgs cross sections using multiple decay channels at 8 TeV.

Findings

Total cross section measured as 33.0 ± 5.3 (stat) ± 1.6 (sys) pb.

Differential cross sections as functions of Higgs kinematics and jet activity.

Results are consistent with Standard Model predictions.

Abstract

Measurements of the total and differential cross sections of Higgs boson production are performed using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are obtained from measured $H \rightarrow \gamma \gamma$ and $H \rightarrow ZZ ^{*}\rightarrow 4\ell$ event yields, which are combined accounting for detector efficiencies, fiducial acceptances and branching fractions. Differential cross sections are reported as a function of Higgs boson transverse momentum, Higgs boson rapidity, number of jets in the event, and transverse momentum of the leading jet. The total production cross section is determined to be $\sigma_{pp \to H} = 33.0 \pm 5.3 \, ({\rm stat}) \pm 1.6 \, ({\rm sys}) \mathrm{pb}$. The measurements are compared to state-of-the-art predictions.