Search for pair production of boosted Higgs bosons via vector-boson fusion in the $b\bar{b}b\bar{b}$ final state using $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for boosted Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion in proton-proton collisions, constraining the quartic coupling and searching for new resonances, with no significant deviations found.

Contribution

First search for Higgs pair production via vector-boson fusion in the boosted regime using ATLAS data, constraining the coupling and probing heavy resonances.

Findings

Constrains V to 0.55-1.49 at 95% CL

Excludes V=0 with 3.8 sigma significance

Sets limits on heavy resonance production between 1-5 TeV

Abstract

A search for Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion is performed in the Lorentz-boosted regime, where a Higgs boson candidate is reconstructed as a single large-radius jet, using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Only Higgs boson decays into bottom quark pairs are considered. The search is particularly sensitive to the quartic coupling between two vector bosons and two Higgs bosons relative to its Standard Model prediction, $\kappa_{2V}$. This study constrains $\kappa_{2V}$ to $0.55 < \kappa_{2V} < 1.49$ at 95% confidence level. The value $\kappa_{2V} = 0$ is excluded with a significance of 3.8 standard deviations with other Higgs boson couplings fixed to their Standard Model values. A search for new heavy spin-0 resonances that would mediate Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion is carried out in the mass range of 1-5 TeV for the first time under several model and decay-width assumptions. No significant deviation from the Standard Model hypothesis is observed and exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are derived.