A detailed map of Higgs boson interactions by the ATLAS experiment ten years after the discovery

TL;DR

This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of Higgs boson interactions using a large dataset from ATLAS, confirming consistency with the Standard Model and constraining new physics models.

Contribution

It provides the most detailed map of Higgs interactions to date, combining numerous production and decay channels for precise testing of the Standard Model.

Findings

Higgs interactions with gluons, photons, W and Z bosons are measured in detail.

Interactions with third-generation particles are well established, with emerging evidence for second-generation interactions.

Results are consistent with Standard Model predictions, constraining new physics models.

Abstract

The Standard Model of particle physics describes the known fundamental particles and forces that make up our universe, with the exception of gravity. One of the central features of the Standard Model is a field that permeates all of space and interacts with fundamental particles. The quantum excitation of this field, known as Higgs field, manifests itself as the Higgs boson, the only fundamental particle with no spin. In 2012, a particle with properties consistent with the Higgs boson of the Standard Model was observed by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Since then, more than 30 times as many Higgs bosons have been recorded by the ATLAS experiment, allowing much more precise measurements and new tests of the theory. Here, on the basis of this larger dataset, we combine an unprecedented number of production and decay processes of the Higgs boson to scrutinize its interactions with elementary particles. Interactions with gluons, photons, and $W$ and $Z$ bosons -- the carriers of the strong, electromagnetic, and weak forces -- are studied in detail. Interactions with three third-generation matter particles (bottom ($b$) and top ($t$) quarks, and tau leptons ($\tau$)) are well measured and indications of interactions with a second-generation particle (muons, $\mu$) are emerging. These tests reveal that the Higgs boson discovered ten years ago is remarkably consistent with the predictions of the theory and provide stringent constraints on many models of new phenomena beyond the Standard Model.