Article,
Search for a standard model-like Higgs boson in the mu+ mu- and e+ e- decay channels at the LHC
Physics Letters B, (Apr 22, 2015)
DOI: 10.1016/j.physletb.2015.03.048
Abstract
A search is presented for a standard model-like Higgs boson decaying to muon
pair or electron pair final states based on proton-proton collisions recorded
by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The data correspond to integrated
luminosities of 5.0 inverse femtobarns at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and
19.7 inverse femtobarns at 8 TeV for the muon search, and of 19.7 inverse
femtobarns at 8 TeV for the electron search. Upper limits on the production
cross section times branching fraction at the 95\% confidence level are reported
for Higgs boson masses in the range from 120 to 150 GeV. For a Higgs boson with
a mass of 125 GeV decaying to muons, the observed (expected) upper limit on the
production rate is found to be 7.4 (6.5 +2.8 -1.9) times the standard model
value. This corresponds to an upper limit on the branching fraction of 0.0016.
Similarly, for electrons, an upper limit of 0.0019 is placed on the branching
fraction, which is about 3.7 E5 times the standard model value. These results,
together with recent evidence of the 125 GeV boson coupling to tau-leptons with
a larger branching fraction consistent with the standard model, confirm that
the leptonic couplings of the new boson are not flavour-universal.
