TY - JOUR

T1 - Constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson signal strength in the high-mass ZZ and WW final states with the ATLAS detector

AU - Barton, Adam

AU - Beattie, Michael

AU - Borissov, Guennadi

AU - Bouhova-Thacker, Evelina Vassileva

AU - Fox, Harald

AU - Grimm, Kathryn Ann Tschann

AU - Henderson, Robert Charles William

AU - Hughes, Gareth

AU - Jones, Roger William Lewis

AU - Kartvelishvili, Vakhtang

AU - Long, Robin Eamonn

AU - Love, Peter Allan

AU - Maddocks, Harvey

AU - Skinner, Malcolm

AU - Smizanska, Maria

AU - Walder, James William

AU - Wharton, Andy

AU - The ATLAS collaboration

PY - 2015/7/17

Y1 - 2015/7/17

N2 - Measurements of the ZZ and WW final states in the mass range above the 2m Z and 2m W thresholds provide a unique opportunity to measure the off-shell coupling strength of the Higgs boson. This paper presents constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson event yields normalised to the Standard Model prediction (signal strength) in the ZZ→4ℓ , ZZ→2ℓ2ν and WW→eνμν final states. The result is based on pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb −1 at a collision energy of s √ =8 TeV. Using the CL s method, the observed 95 % confidence level (CL) upper limit on the off-shell signal strength is in the range 5.1–8.6, with an expected range of 6.7–11.0. In each case the range is determined by varying the unknown gg→ZZ and gg→WW background K-factor from higher-order quantum chromodynamics corrections between half and twice the value of the known signal K-factor. Assuming the relevant Higgs boson couplings are independent of the energy scale of the Higgs boson production, a combination with the on-shell measurements yields an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on Γ H /Γ SM H in the range 4.5–7.5 (6.5–11.2) using the same variations of the background K-factor. Assuming that the unknown gg→VV background K-factor is equal to the signal K-factor, this translates into an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV.

AB - Measurements of the ZZ and WW final states in the mass range above the 2m Z and 2m W thresholds provide a unique opportunity to measure the off-shell coupling strength of the Higgs boson. This paper presents constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson event yields normalised to the Standard Model prediction (signal strength) in the ZZ→4ℓ , ZZ→2ℓ2ν and WW→eνμν final states. The result is based on pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb −1 at a collision energy of s √ =8 TeV. Using the CL s method, the observed 95 % confidence level (CL) upper limit on the off-shell signal strength is in the range 5.1–8.6, with an expected range of 6.7–11.0. In each case the range is determined by varying the unknown gg→ZZ and gg→WW background K-factor from higher-order quantum chromodynamics corrections between half and twice the value of the known signal K-factor. Assuming the relevant Higgs boson couplings are independent of the energy scale of the Higgs boson production, a combination with the on-shell measurements yields an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on Γ H /Γ SM H in the range 4.5–7.5 (6.5–11.2) using the same variations of the background K-factor. Assuming that the unknown gg→VV background K-factor is equal to the signal K-factor, this translates into an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV.

U2 - 10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3542-2

DO - 10.1140/epjc/s10052-015-3542-2

M3 - Journal article

VL - 75

JO - European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields

JF - European Physical Journal C: Particles and Fields

SN - 1434-6044

IS - 7

M1 - 335

ER -