Search for higgsino pair production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV in final states with large missing transverse momentum and two Higgs bosons decaying via H to bb-bar

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for higgsino pair production in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, focusing on final states with large missing transverse momentum and two Higgs bosons decaying to bb-bar, setting new exclusion limits.

Contribution

It introduces a search strategy for higgsinos in a specific decay channel using CMS data, extending previous limits on higgsino masses in supersymmetry models.

Findings

No significant excess over standard model background observed.

Higgsinos with masses between 230 and 770 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

The analysis constrains supersymmetry models predicting higgsino production.

Abstract

Results are reported from a search for new physics in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions in the final state with large missing transverse momentum and two Higgs bosons decaying via H to bb-bar. The search uses a data sample accumulated by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 inverse femtobarns. The search is motivated by models based on gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, which predict the electroweak production of a pair of higgsinos, each of which can decay via a cascade process to a Higgs boson and an undetected lightest supersymmetric particle. The observed event yields in the signal regions are consistent with the standard model background expectation obtained from control regions in data. Higgsinos in the mass range 230-770 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in the context of a simplified model for the production and decay of approximately degenerate higgsinos.