Application of the matrix element method to Higgs boson pair production in the channel $\textrm{HH} \to \textrm{b}\bar{\textrm{b}}\textrm{W}\textrm{W}^{*}$ at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the application of the matrix element method to distinguish non-resonant Higgs boson pair production from top quark pair background in LHC data, achieving significant background suppression.

Contribution

The study introduces the use of the matrix element method for Higgs pair production analysis in the $ extrm{b}ar{ extrm{b}} extrm{W} extrm{W}^{*}$ channel at the LHC, focusing on background reduction techniques.

Findings

Background reduced to 0.26% at 35% signal efficiency.

Effective separation between Higgs pair signal and top quark background.

Analysis tailored for ATLAS and CMS conditions during LHC Run 2.

Abstract

We apply the matrix element method (MEM) to the search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair ($\textrm{HH}$) production in the channel $\textrm{HH} \to \textrm{b}\bar{\textrm{b}}\textrm{W}\textrm{W}^{*}$ at the LHC and study the separation between the $\textrm{HH}$ signal and the large irreducible background, which arises from the production of top quark pairs ($\textrm{t}\bar{\textrm{t}}$). Our study focuses on events containing two leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state. The separation between signal and background is studied for experimental conditions characteristic for the ATLAS and CMS experiments during LHC Run $2$, using the DELPHES fast-simulation package. We find that the $\textrm{t}\bar{\textrm{t}}$ background can be reduced to a level of $0.26\%$ for a signal efficiency of $35\%$.