Limits on an Exotic Higgs Decay From a Recast ATLAS Four-Lepton Analysis

TL;DR

This paper recasts an ATLAS four-lepton analysis to set limits on an exotic Higgs decay involving intermediate scalars and dark photons, providing new constraints on this beyond Standard Model scenario.

Contribution

It reproduces and extends the ATLAS four-lepton analysis to derive limits on a novel Higgs decay mode involving dark sector particles.

Findings

Limits on BR(H→aa→VVVV) range from 4×10⁻⁵ to 1×10⁻⁴ across scalar and dark photon masses.

Recast analysis effectively constrains exotic Higgs decay scenarios.

Demonstrates the utility of existing collider data to probe new physics models.

Abstract

The ATLAS collaboration, using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV collisions from the Large Hadron Collider, has placed limits on the decay of a $Z$ boson to three dark photons. We reproduce the results of the ATLAS analysis, and then recast it as a limit on a exotic Higgs decay mode, in which the Higgs boson decays via a pair of intermediate (pseudo)scalars $a$ to four dark photons $V$ (or some other spin-one meson). Across the mass range for $m_a$ and $m_V$, we find limits on the exotic Higgs branching fraction BR$(H\to aa \to VVVV)$ in the range of $4\times 10^{-5}$ to $1 \times 10^{-4}$.