Search for dark matter produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for dark matter produced alongside a Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, setting limits on new physics models with Z' and 2HDM+a frameworks.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis combining boosted and resolved Higgs decay topologies, improving constraints on dark matter models at the LHC.

Findings

Excluded Z' boson masses below 2.25 TeV for 1 GeV dark matter.

Excluded pseudoscalar masses between 850 and 1300 GeV in 2HDM+a model.

No significant deviation from the Standard Model background observed.

Abstract

A search for dark matter particles produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a bottom quark-antiquark pair in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV is presented. The data, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis is performed in exclusive categories targeting both Lorentz-boosted (merged) and resolved b jet pair topologies, covering a wide range of Higgs boson transverse momentum. A statistical combination is made with a previous search using data collected in 2016 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The observed data agree with the standard model background predictions. Constraints are placed on models predicting new particles or interactions, such as those in the simplified frameworks of baryonic-Z' and 2HDM+a, where the latter is a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model featuring a heavy pseudoscalar with an additional light pseudoscalar. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the production cross section for these models. For the baryonic-Z' model, Z' boson masses below 2.25 TeV are excluded for a dark matter particle candidate mass of 1 GeV. In the 2HDM+a model, heavy pseudoscalar masses between 850 and 1300 GeV are excluded for a light pseudoscalar mass of 350 GeV.