Search for a standard model-like Higgs boson in the mass range between 70 and 110 GeV in the diphoton final state in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for a Higgs boson in the 70-110 GeV mass range decaying into two photons using CMS data from 2016-2018, finding no significant signal but setting upper limits on production.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive search in this mass range with the latest CMS data, setting new upper limits on Higgs-like particle production in diphoton final states.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Maximum local significance of 2.9 sigma at 95.4 GeV.

Upper limits on cross section range from 15 to 73 fb.

Abstract

The results of a search for a standard model-like Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range between 70 and 110 GeV are presented. The analysis uses the data set collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to integrated luminosities of 36.3 fb$^{-1}$, 41.5 fb$^{-1}$ and 54.4 fb$^{-1}$ during the 2016, 2017, and 2018 LHC running periods, respectively. No significant excess over the background expectation is observed and 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for decays of an additional Higgs boson into two photons. The maximum deviation with respect to the background is seen for a mass hypothesis of 95.4 GeV with a local (global) significance of 2.9 (1.3) standard deviations. The observed upper limit ranges from 15 to 73 fb.