Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>b</mml:mi></mml:math>-quarks and decaying into <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>b</mml:mi></mml:math>-quarks at <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msqrt><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></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:math> with the ATLAS detector
G. Aad, B. Abbott, D. C. Abbott, O. Abdinov, A. Abed Abud, K. Abeling, D. K. Abhayasinghe, S. H. Abidi, O. S. AbouZeid, N. L. Abraham, H. Abramowicz, H. Abreu, Y. Abulaiti, B. S. Acharya, B. Achkar, S. Adachi, L. Adámek, C. Adam Bourdarios, L. Adamczyk, L. Adámek, J. Adelman, M. Adersberger, A. Adiguzel, S. Adorni, T. Adye, A. A. Affolder, Y. Afik, C. Agapopoulou, M. N. Agaras, A. Aggarwal, C. Agheorghiesei, J. A. Aguilar–Saavedra, F. Ahmadov, W. S. Ahmed, X. Ai, G. Aielli, S. Akatsuka, T. P. A. Åkesson, E. Akilli, A. V. Akimov, K. Al Khoury, G. L. Alberghi, J. Albert, M. J. Alconada Verzini, S. Alderweireldt, M. Aleksa, I. N. Aleksandrov, C. Alexa, D. Alexandre, T. Alexopoulos, A. Alfonsi, M. Alhroob, B. Ali, G. Alimonti, J. Alison, S. P. Alkire, C. Allaire, B. M. M. Allbrooke, B. W. Allen, P. P. Allport, A. Aloisio, A. Alonso, F. Alonso, C. Alpigiani, A. A. Alshehri, M. Alvarez Estevez, D. Álvarez Piqueras, M.G. Alviggi, Y. Amaral Coutinho, A. Ambler, L. Ambroz, C. Amelung, D. Amidei, S. P. Amor Dos Santos, S. Amoroso, C. S. Amrouche, F. F. An, C. Anastopoulos, N. Andari, T. Andeen, C. F. Anders, J. K. Anders, A. Andreazza, V. Andrei, C. R. Anelli, S. Angelidakis, A. Angerami, A. V. Anisenkov, A. Annovi, C. Antel, M. T. Anthony, M. Antonelli, D. J. A. Antrim, F. Anulli, M. Aoki, J. A. Aparisi Pozo, L. Aperio Bella, G. Arabidze, J. P. Araque, V. Araujo Ferraz
Abstract
A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with one or two $b$-quarks and decaying to $b$-quark pairs is presented using $27.8\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2015 and 2016. No evidence of a signal is found. Upper limits on the heavy neutral Higgs boson production cross section times its branching ratio to $b\overline{b}$ are set, ranging from 4.0 to 0.6 pb at 95% confidence level over a Higgs boson mass range of 450 to 1400 GeV. Results are interpreted within the two-Higgs-doublet model and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model.