Search for a very light NMSSM Higgs boson produced in decays of the 125 GeV scalar boson and decaying into tau leptons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for very light Higgs bosons decaying into tau pairs within the NMSSM framework, using 8 TeV proton-proton collision data, setting upper limits on production cross sections without observing a significant signal.

Contribution

It presents the first search for light Higgs bosons decaying into tau pairs in the NMSSM at 8 TeV, establishing upper limits on their production cross sections.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Upper limits on cross section times branching ratio range from 4.5 pb to 10.3 pb.

Mass range covered is 4 to 8 GeV for the light Higgs bosons.

Abstract

A search for a very light Higgs boson decaying into a pair of tau leptons is presented within the framework of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model. This search is based on a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The signal is defined by the production of either of the two lightest scalars, h[1] or h[2], via gluon-gluon fusion and subsequent decay into a pair of the lightest Higgs bosons, a[1] or h[1]. The h[1] or h[2] boson is identified with the observed state at a mass of 125 GeV. The analysis searches for decays of the a[1] (h[1]) states into pairs of tau leptons and covers a mass range for the a[1] (h[1]) boson of 4 to 8 GeV. The search reveals no significant excess in data above standard model background expectations, and an upper limit is set on the signal production cross section times branching fraction as a function of the a[1] (h[1]) boson mass. The 95% confidence level limit ranges from 4.5 pb at m(a[1]) (m(h[1])) = 8 GeV to 10.3 pb at m(a[1]) (m(h[1])) = 5 GeV.