Search for $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$H production in the H $\rightarrow$ $\mathrm{b\overline{b}}$ decay channel with leptonic $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$ decays in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the production of the Higgs boson in association with top quarks, focusing on the decay into b quark pairs, using proton-proton collision data at 13 TeV collected by CMS, employing multivariate analysis to distinguish signal from background.

Contribution

It presents the first CMS analysis of t-tbar-H production with H to bb decay using leptonic top decays at 13 TeV, employing advanced multivariate techniques for event classification.

Findings

Observed signal strength μ = 0.72 ± 0.24 (stat) ± 0.38 (syst)

Observed (expected) significance of 1.6 (2.2) standard deviations

Upper limit on μ of 1.5 at 95% confidence level

Abstract

A search is presented for the associated production of a standard model Higgs boson with a top quark-antiquark pair ($\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$H), in which the Higgs boson decays into a b quark-antiquark pair, in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. Candidate $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$H events are selected that contain either one or two electrons or muons from the $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$ decays and are categorised according to the number of jets. Multivariate techniques are employed to further classify the events and eventually discriminate between signal and background. The results are characterised by an observed $\mathrm{t\overline{t}}$H signal strength relative to the standard model cross section, $\mu = \sigma$ / $\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}$, under the assumption of a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. A combined fit of multivariate discriminant distributions in all categories results in an observed (expected) upper limit on $\mu$ of 1.5 (0.9) at 95% confidence level, and a best fit value of 0.72 $\pm$ 0.24 (stat) $\pm$ 0.38 (syst), corresponding to an observed (expected) signal significance of 1.6 (2.2) standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis.