Search for Exotic Higgs Boson Decays <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:mi>H</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">→</mml:mo><mml:mi mathvariant="script">A</mml:mi><mml:mi mathvariant="script">A</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">→</mml:mo><mml:mrow><mml:mn>4</mml:mn><mml:mi>γ</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:mrow></mml:math> with Events Containing Two Merged Diphotons in Proton-Proton Collisions at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mrow><mml:msqrt><mml:mrow><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:msqrt><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>13</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mi>TeV</mml:mi></mml:mrow></mml:math>
A. Tumasyan, W. Adam, J. W. Andrejkovic, T. Bergauer, S. Chatterjee, K. Damanakis, M. Dragicevic, A. Escalante Del Valle, Priya Sajid Hussain, M. Jeitler, Natascha Krammer, L. Lechner, D. Liko, I. Mikulec, P. Paulitsch, F. M. Pitters, J. Schieck, R. Schöfbeck, D. Schwarz, S. Templ, W. Waltenberger, C.-E. Wulz, M. R. Darwish, X. Janssen, T. Kello, Haifa Rejeb Sfar, P. Van Mechelen, E. S. Bols, J. D’Hondt, A. De Moor, M. Delcourt, H. El Faham, S. Lowette, S. Moortgat, A. Morton, D. Müller, A. R. Sahasransu, S. Tavernier, W. Van Doninck, D. Vannerom, B. Clerbaux, G. De Lentdecker, L. Favart, D. Hohov, J. Jaramillo, K. Lee, M. Mahdavikhorrami, I. Makarenko, A. Malara, S. Paredes, L. Pétré, N. Postiau, E. Starling, Laurent Thomas, M. Vanden Bemden, C. Vander Velde, P. Vanlaer, D. Dobur, J. Knolle, Luka Lambrecht, Gianny Mestdach, M. Niedziela, César Rendón, C. Roskas, Amrutha Samalan, K. Skovpen, M. Tytgat, N. Van Den Bossche, B. Vermassen, Liam Wezenbeek, A. Benecke, G. Bruno, F. Bury, C. Caputo, P. David, C. Delaere, I. S. Donertas, A. Giammanco, K. Jaffel, Sa. Jain, V. Lemaı̂tre, K. Mondal, J. Prisciandaro, A. Taliercio, T. T. Tran, P. Vischia, S. Wertz, G. A. Alves, E. Coelho, C. Hensel, A. Moraes, P. Rebello Teles, W. L. Aldá Júnior, M. Alves Gallo Pereira, M. Barroso Ferreira Filho, H. Brandao Malbouisson, W. Carvalho, J. Chinellato, E. M. Da Costa, G. G. Da Silveira
Abstract
We present the first direct search for exotic Higgs boson decays $H\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathcal{AA}$, $\mathcal{A}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ in events with two photonlike objects. The hypothetical particle $\mathcal{A}$ is a low-mass spin-0 particle decaying promptly to a merged diphoton reconstructed as a single photonlike object. We analyze the data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}=13\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $136\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$. No excess above the estimated background is found. We set upper limits on the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(H\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\mathcal{A}\mathcal{A}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4\ensuremath{\gamma})$ of $(0.9--3.3)\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$ at 95% confidence level for masses of $\mathcal{A}$ in the range 0.1--1.2 GeV.