Search For Neutral MSSM Higgs Boson Production via Decays to Tau Pairs in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) =7 TeV

Abstract

The results of a search for neutral MSSM Higgs boson production in pp collisions at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV are presented, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1. Decays of the Higgs bosons to tau pairs provide the most sensitive search channels. No excess is observed in the fully reconstructed tau pair invariant mass spectrum. The resulting upper bounds on the Higgs-production cross section times branching ratio to tau pairs as a function of the Higgs boson mass yield stringent new bounds in the MSSM parameter space m_A versus tan beta.

Documentation

Analysis Summary CMS-PAS-HIG-10-002

Supplementary Material

Additional plots and tables for use by CMS members in talks can be found here (protected).

Plots/Tables from the Paper (click on plot to get .pdf)

Figure	Abbreviated Caption
	Figure 1: The reconstructed tau pair invariant mass distribution on linear (above) and log (below) scales, for the sum of the e h, h, and e final states, comparing the observed distributions (data points with error bars) to the sum of the expected backgrounds (shaded histograms). The contribution from a Higgs boson signal (m_A=200 GeV) is also shown, with normalization corresponding to the 95% upper bound.
	Figure 2: The expected one- and two-standard-deviation ranges (blue bands) and observed (red line) 95\% C.L. upper limits on time BR as a function of m_A.
	Figure 3: Region in the parameter space of tan versus m_A excluded at 95% C.L. in the context of the MSSM m_max_h scenario, with the effect of +/- 1 theoretical uncertainties shown.
	Figure 4: Same as Figure 3 including the 95% C.L. excluded regions (shaded) from the LEP and Tevatron experiments.
	Figure 5: Tau pair mass reconstructed in simulated Higgs events with $m_A = 160 GeV by the SVfit (blue) compared to the to the visible mass (dark red). The red curve shows the visible mass scaled such that its mean value is the same as the SVfit mean value. The dotted line is a Gaussian function fitted to the SVfit spectrum.
	Table 1: The number of estimated background events in the selected sample for each channel, the observed number of events, and the overall signal efficiency for m_A=120 GeV (including branching ratios). Uncertainties do not include those on integrated luminosity or energy scales. The multijet background for the e h final state is the sum of the QCD multijet and +jet backgrounds.
	Table 2: Expected one- and two-standard-deviation range, and observed 95% C.L. upper limits on time BR as functions of m_A, and 95% C.L. upper bound on MSSM parameter tan in the m_h_max scenario described in the text. No bounds on tan above 60 are quoted.

-- MarkusKlute