Search for $H\rightarrow c\bar{c}$ and measurement of $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ in vector-boson fusion production with the ATLAS Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on searches for Higgs boson decays into charm and bottom quark pairs via vector-boson fusion at the LHC, setting limits on the charm Yukawa coupling and observing evidence for bottom quark decays.

Contribution

It presents the first limits on the Higgs-charm Yukawa coupling in vector-boson fusion and provides evidence for Higgs decays into bottom quarks in this production mode.

Findings

Upper limit on $H\rightarrow c\bar{c}$ production is 41 times the SM prediction.

Observed signal strength for $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ is 0.97 with uncertainties.

Evidence for $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ in vector-boson fusion with 3.2 sigma significance.

Abstract

A search for Standard Model (SM) Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion at the Large Hadron Collider and decaying into a charm quark-antiquark pair ($H\rightarrow c\bar{c}$) is presented. The datasets used correspond to integrated luminosities of 37.5 fb$^{-1}$ and 51.5 fb$^{-1}$ and were collected by the ATLAS detector from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=13 and 13.6 TeV, respectively. The observed (expected) upper limit on the $H\rightarrow c\bar{c}$ production cross-section times branching ratio is 41 (28) times the SM prediction at 95% confidence level. Combining this search with the previous $H\rightarrow c\bar{c}$ search in associated production with a $W$ or $Z$ boson yields an observed (expected) limit on the Higgs-charm Yukawa coupling modifier of $|\kappa_{c}| $ < 4.7 (3.9). Higgs bosons decaying into a bottom quark-antiquark pair ($H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$) are measured simultaneously using the 51.5 fb$^{-1}$ dataset at $\sqrt{s}$=13.6 TeV, with an observed signal strength of 0.97$^{+0.57}_{-0.50}$ relative to the SM expectation. When combined with previous $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ results at 13 TeV, the observed (expected) significance reaches 3.2 (3.6) standard deviations, providing evidence for $H\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ events from vector-boson fusion.