Search for Charged Higgs Bosons in e+e- Collisions at Centre-of-Mass Energies up to 202 GeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for charged Higgs bosons in electron-positron collisions at energies up to 202 GeV, setting mass limits based on observed data and Standard Model background expectations.

Contribution

The study provides new lower mass limits for charged Higgs bosons using LEP data, considering various decay channels and energies, improving constraints on beyond Standard Model physics.

Findings

No evidence of charged Higgs bosons was observed.

Mass limits range from 67.4 to 79.9 GeV depending on decay modes.

Data is consistent with Standard Model background predictions.

Abstract

A search for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons is performed with the L3 detector at LEP using data collected at centre-of-mass energies between 192 and 202 GeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 233.2 pb^-1. Decays into a charm and a strange quark or into a tau lepton and its neutrino are considered. The observed events are consistent with the expectations from Standard Model background processes. Including data taken at lower centre-of-mass energies, lower limits on the charged Higgs mass are derived at the 95% confidence level. They vary from 67.4 to 79.9GeV as a function of the H^+/- --> tau nu branching ratio.