Physicists Tighten Constraints on Higgs Boson's Hidden Decay Pathway
CERN researchers used massive datasets from the Large Hadron Collider to rule out a theorized way the Higgs boson decays into invisible dark matter particles. The finding narrows where physicists should search for physics beyond the Standard Model—potentially redirecting billions in future research funding and accelerator design.
Originaltitel: Combination of searches for Higgs boson decays into a photon and a massless dark photon using pp collisions at √<em>s</em> = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector
<p>A combination of searches for Higgs boson decays into a visible photon and a massless dark photon (H -> gamma gamma(d)) is presented using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit on the Standard Model Higgs boson decay branching ratio is determined to be B(H -> gamma gamma(d)) < 1.3% (1.5)%. The search is also sensitive to higher-mass Higgs bosons decaying into the same final state. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level limit on the cross-section times branching ratio ranges from 16 fb (20 fb) for m(H) = 400 GeV to 1.0 fb (1.5 fb) for m(H) = 3 TeV. Results are also interpreted in the context of a minimal simplified model.</p>