Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in final states with leptons, taus, and photons in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in various decay channels using 13 TeV proton-proton collision data from the ATLAS detector, setting limits on production cross-section and Higgs self-coupling.

Contribution

First comprehensive search for non-resonant Higgs pair production across multiple decay channels with the ATLAS detector at 13 TeV, providing new constraints on Higgs self-coupling.

Findings

No significant signal observed.

Upper limit on production cross-section is 17 times the Standard Model prediction.

Constraints on Higgs self-coupling modifier are established.

Abstract

A search is presented for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production, targeting the $bbZZ$, 4$V$ ($V$ = $W$ or $Z$), $VV\tau\tau$, 4$\tau$, $\gamma\gamma VV$ and $\gamma\gamma\tau\tau$ decay channels. Events are categorised based on the multiplicity of light charged leptons (electrons or muons), hadronically decaying tau leptons, and photons. The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence of the signal is found and the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross-section for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 17 (11) times the Standard Model predicted cross-section at 95% confidence level under the background-only hypothesis. The observed (expected) constraints on the $HHH$ coupling modifier, $\kappa_{\lambda}$, are determined to be $-6.2 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 11.6$ ($-4.5 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 9.6$) at 95% confidence level, assuming the Standard Model for the expected limits and that new physics would only affect $\kappa_{\lambda}$.