Home > Research > Publications & Outputs > Search for invisible Higgs-boson decays in even...

Associated organisational unit

Links

Text available via DOI:

View graph of relations

Search for invisible Higgs-boson decays in events with vector-boson fusion signatures using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton data recorded by the ATLAS experiment

Research output: Contribution to Journal/MagazineJournal articlepeer-review

Published
Article number104
<mark>Journal publication date</mark>8/08/2022
<mark>Journal</mark>Journal of High Energy Physics
Issue number8
Volume2022
Number of pages66
Publication StatusPublished
<mark>Original language</mark>English

Abstract

A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 fb−1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of 0.145 is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of 0.103. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 GeV to 2 TeV are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 pb for a scalar boson mass of 50 GeV to 0.1 pb at a mass of 2 TeV. [Figure not available: see fulltext.]