The discovery of a new boson with a mass of approximately 125 GeV in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider1, 2, 3 has heralded a new era in understanding the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking and ...possibly completing the standard model of particle physics4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Since the first observation in decays to γγ, WW and ZZ boson pairs, an extensive set of measurements of the mass10, 11 and couplings to W and Z bosons11, 12, 13, as well as multiple tests of the spin-parity quantum numbers10, 11, 13, 14, have revealed that the properties of the new boson are consistent with those of the long-sought agent responsible for electroweak symmetry breaking. An important open question is whether the new particle also couples to fermions, and in particular to down-type fermions, as the current measurements mainly constrain the couplings to the up-type top quark. Determination of the couplings to down-type fermions requires direct measurement of the corresponding Higgs boson decays, as recently reported by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment in the study of Higgs decays to bottom quarks15 and τ leptons16. Here, we report the combination of these two channels, which results in strong evidence for the direct coupling of the 125 GeV Higgs boson to down-type fermions, with an observed significance of 3.8 standard deviations, when 4.4 are expected.
A study of the associated production of a $\mathrm{Z} $ boson and a charm quark jet ( $\mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} $ ), and a comparison to production with a $\mathrm{b} $ quark jet ( $\mathrm{Z} + ...\mathrm{b} $ ), in $\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 $\,\text {TeV}$ are presented. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 $\,\text {fb}^{-1}$ , collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The $\mathrm{Z} $ boson candidates are identified through their decays into pairs of electrons or muons. Jets originating from heavy flavour quarks are identified using semileptonic decays of $\mathrm{c} $ or $\mathrm{b} $ flavoured hadrons and hadronic decays of charm hadrons. The measurements are performed in the kinematic region with two leptons with $p_{\mathrm {T}} ^{\ell } > 20\,\text {GeV} $ , ${|\eta ^{\ell }|} < 2.1$ , $71< m_{\ell \ell } < 111\,\text {GeV} $ , and heavy flavour jets with $p_{\mathrm {T}} ^{\text {jet}} > 25\,\text {GeV} $ and ${|\eta ^{ \text {jet}}|} < 2.5$ . The $\mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} $ production cross section is measured to be $\sigma (\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}\rightarrow \mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} + X) \mathcal {B}(\mathrm{Z} \rightarrow \ell ^+\ell ^-) = 8.8 \pm 0.5\,\text {(stat)} \pm 0.6\,\text {(syst)} \,\text {pb} $ . The ratio of the $\mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} $ and $\mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{b} $ production cross sections is measured to be $\sigma (\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}\rightarrow \mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} + X)/\sigma (\mathrm {p}\mathrm {p}\rightarrow \mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{b} + X) = 2.0 \pm 0.2\,\text {(stat)} \pm 0.2\,\text {(syst)} $ . The $\mathrm{Z} + \mathrm{c} $ production cross section and the cross section ratio are also measured as a function of the transverse momentum of the $\mathrm{Z} $ boson and of the heavy flavour jet. The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions.
The production of jets in association with Z bosons, reconstructed via the mu+mu- and e+e- decay channels, is studied in pp and, for the first time, in PbPb collisions. Both data samples were ...collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The PbPb collisions were analyzed in the 0-30% centrality range. The back-to-back azimuthal alignment was studied in both pp and PbPb collisions for Z bosons with transverse momentum ptz > 60 GeV/c and a recoiling jet with ptj > 30 GeV/c. The pt imbalance, xjz= ptj/ptz, as well as the average number of jet partners per Z, rjz, were studied in intervals of ptz, in both pp and PbPb collisions. The rjz is found to be smaller in PbPb than in pp collisions, which suggests that in PbPb collisions a larger fraction of partons, associated with the Z bosons, lose energy and fall below the 30 GeV/c ptj threshold.
A search for events containing four top quarks (ttbar-ttbar) is reported from proton-proton collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity ...of 2.6 inverse femtobarns The analysis considers the single-lepton (e or mu)+jets and the opposite-sign dilepton (mu+mu-, mu+/- e-/+, or e+e-)+jets channels. It uses boosted decision trees to combine information on the global event and jet properties to distinguish between ttbar-ttbar and ttbar production. The number of events observed after all selection requirements is consistent with expectations from background and standard model signal predictions, and an upper limit is set on the cross section for ttbar-ttbar production in the standard model of 94 fb at 95% confidence level (10.2 times the prediction), with an expected limit of 118 fb. This is combined with the results from the published CMS search in the same-sign dilepton channel, resulting in an improved limit of 69 fb at 95% confidence level (7.4 times the prediction), with an expected limit of 71 fb. These are the strongest constraints on the rate of ttbar-ttbar production to date.
Charge-dependent azimuthal particle correlations with respect to the second-order event plane in pPb and PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV have been studied with ...the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measurement is performed with a three-particle correlation technique, using two particles with the same or opposite charge within the pseudorapidity range abs(eta)<2.4, and a third particle measured in the hadron forward calorimeters (4.4< abs(eta)<5). The observed differences between the same and opposite sign correlations, as functions of multiplicity and eta gap between the two charged particles, are of similar magnitude in pPb and PbPb collisions at the same multiplicities. These results pose a challenge for the interpretation of charge-dependent azimuthal correlations in heavy ion collisions in terms of the chiral magnetic effect.
A search is presented for a heavy vector-like quark, decaying into a b quark and a W boson, which is produced singly in association with a light flavor quark and a b quark. The analysis is performed ...using a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 13 TeV collected at the LHC in 2015. The data set used in the analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse-femtobarns. The search is carried out using events containing one electron or muon, at least one b-tagged jet with large transverse momentum, at least one jet in the forward region of the detector, and missing transverse momentum. No excess over the standard model prediction is observed. Upper limits are placed on the production cross section of heavy exotic quarks: a T quark with a charge of 2/3, and a Y quark with a charge of -4/3. For Y quarks with coupling of 0.5 and B(Y to bW) = 100%, the observed (expected) lower mass limits are 1.40 (1.0) TeV. This is the most stringent limit to date on the single production of the Y vector-like quark.
A search for heavy narrow resonances decaying into four-lepton final states from cascade decays of a Z' boson has been performed using proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV collected by the ...CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. No excess of events over the standard model background expectation is observed. Upper limits for a benchmark model on the product of cross section and branching fraction for the production of these heavy narrow resonances are presented. The limit excludes leptophobic Z' bosons with masses below 2.5 TeV within the benchmark model. This is the first result to constrain a leptophobic Z' resonance in the four-lepton channel.
The WZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV is measured with the CMS experiment at the LHC using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 ...inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed in the leptonic decay modes WZ to l nu l' l', where l, l'= e, mu. The measured cross section for the range 60 < ml'l' < 120GeV is sigma(pp to WZ = 39.9 +/- 3.2 (stat) +2.9/-3.1 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 1.3 (lum) pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.
The CMS Collaboration presents the first measurement of the differential cross section of jets from charm quarks produced in proton-lead (pPb) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of ...sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV, as well as results from charm quark jets in proton-proton (pp) collisions at sqrt(s)= 2.76 and 5.02 TeV. By comparing the yields of the pPb and pp collision systems at the same energy, a nuclear modification factor for charm jets in pPb collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV of RpA = 0.92 +/- 0.07 (stat) +/- 0.11 (syst) is obtained. This is consistent with an absence of final-state energy loss for charm quarks in pPb collisions. In addition, the fraction of jets coming from charm quarks is found to be consistent with that predicted by PYTHIA 6 for pp collisions at sqrt(s)= 2.76 and 5.02 TeV, and is independent of the jet transverse momentum from 55 to 400 GeV.
The production yields of Upsilon(1S), Upsilon(2S), and Upsilon(3S) quarkonium states are measured through their decays into muon pairs in the CMS detector, in PbPb and pp collisions at the ...centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 2.76 TeV. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of 166 inverse microbarns and 5.4 inverse picobarns for PbPb and pp collisions, respectively. Differential production cross sections are reported as functions of Upsilon rapidity $y$ up to 2.4, and transverse momentum pt up to 20 GeV/c. A strong centrality-dependent suppression is observed in PbPb relative to pp collisions, by factors of up to ~2 and 8, for the Upsilon(1S) and Upsilon(2S) states, respectively. No significant dependence of this suppression is observed as a function of y or pt. The Upsilon(3S) state is not observed in PbPb collisions, which corresponds to a suppression for the centrality-integrated data by at least a factor of ~7 at a 95% confidence level. The observed suppression is in agreement with theoretical scenarios modeling the sequential melting of quarkonium states in a quark gluon plasma.
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