Measurement of inclusive and differential cross sections in the $H \rightarrow ZZ^* \rightarrow 4\ell$ decay channel in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper measures the Higgs boson production cross sections in the $H ightarrow ZZ^* ightarrow 4 ext{l}$ decay channel at 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, comparing results to Standard Model predictions and constraining anomalous interactions.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed measurement of inclusive and differential Higgs cross sections in this decay channel at 13 TeV, testing Standard Model predictions and probing new physics.

Findings

Measured inclusive cross section of 3.62 fb with uncertainties.

Good agreement between measured and predicted cross sections.

Constraints on anomalous Higgs interactions using pseudo-observables.

Abstract

Inclusive and differential fiducial cross sections of Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions are measured in the $H \rightarrow ZZ^* \rightarrow 4\ell$ decay channel. The proton-proton collision data were produced at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. The inclusive fiducial cross section in the $H \rightarrow ZZ^* \rightarrow 4\ell$ decay channel is measured to be 3.62 $\pm$ 0.50 (stat) $^{+0.25}_{-0.20}$ (sys) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 2.91 $\pm$ 0.13 fb. The cross section is also extrapolated to the total phase space including all Standard Model Higgs boson decays. Several differential fiducial cross sections are measured for observables sensitive to the Higgs boson production and decay, including kinematic distributions of jets produced in association with the Higgs boson. Good agreement is found between data and Standard Model predictions. The results are used to put constraints on anomalous Higgs boson interactions with Standard Model particles, using the pseudo-observable extension to the kappa-framework.