Search for Higgs boson production at high transverse momentum in the WW decay channel in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for high transverse momentum Higgs bosons decaying to WW in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, using advanced jet algorithms and analyzing data from the CMS experiment, finding no significant signal.

Contribution

It introduces a novel analysis of highly Lorentz-boosted H→WW decays with transformer-based jet identification in the CMS data at 13 TeV.

Findings

Measured cross section ratio μ = -0.19^{+0.48}_{-0.46}

No evidence of Higgs signal above background

First dedicated study of boosted H→WW decays

Abstract

A search for Higgs boson (\PH) production at high transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) in the WW decay channel is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment in 2016$-$2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The visible decay products of the Higgs boson are reconstructed as a single large-radius jet with one isolated lepton or none (1$\ell$ and 0$\ell$, respectively; $\ell$ = e, $\mu$). The \PH-candidate jets are identified using an advanced transformer-based algorithm and are calibrated with the Lund jet plane reweighting technique. The 1$\ell$ channel is further split into gluon fusion, vector boson fusion, and associated production with hadronically decaying vector boson categories, while the 0$\ell$ channel considers all production processes inclusively. The measured cross section times the H $\to$ WW branching fraction relative to the standard model expectation is $\mu$ = $-$0.19$^{+0.48}_{-0.46}$, indicating no evidence of a signal above the background. This measurement represents the first dedicated study of highly Lorentz-boosted H $\to$ WW decays, complementing earlier searches for high-$p_\mathrm{T}$ Higgs boson in other decay channels.