Search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson into two light pseudoscalars with four photons in the final state in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for an exotic Higgs decay into four photons via two light pseudoscalars in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, setting upper limits on the process with no significant signal observed.

Contribution

First search for Higgs decay into four photons via light pseudoscalars in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, providing new upper limits on the process.

Findings

No significant excess over background observed.

Upper limits on production cross section range from 0.80 to 0.26 fb.

Probing pseudoscalar masses from 15 to 62 GeV.

Abstract

A search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalars, each of which subsequently decays into a pair of photons, is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 132 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis probes pseudoscalar bosons with masses in the range 15-62 GeV, coming from the Higgs boson decay, which leads to four well-isolated photons in the final state. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and branching fraction into four photons. The observed (expected) limits range from 0.80 (1.00) fb for a pseudoscalar boson mass of 15 GeV to 0.26 (0.24) fb for a mass of 62 GeV at 95% confidence level.