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In this work, we consider the case of a strongly coupled dark/hidden sector, which extends the Standard Model (SM) by adding an additional non-Abelian gauge group. These extensions generally contain matter fields, much like the SM quarks, and gauge fields similar to the SM gluons. We focus on the exploration of such sectors where the dark particles are produced at the LHC through a portal and undergo rapid hadronization within the dark sector before decaying back, at least in part and potentially with sizeable lifetimes, to SM particles, giving a range of possibly spectacular signatures such as emerging or semi-visible jets. Other, non-QCD-like scenarios leading to soft unclustered energy patterns or glueballs are also discussed. After a review of the theory, existing benchmarks and constraints, this work addresses how to build consistent benchmarks from the underlying physical parameters and present new developments for the pythia Hidden Valley module, along with jet substructure studies. Finally, a series of improved search strategies is presented in order to pave the way for a better exploration of the dark showers at the LHC.

Analysis on HEP data is an iterative process in which the results of one step often inform the next. In an exploratory analysis, it is common to perform one computation on a collection of events, then view the results (often with histograms) to decide what to try next. Awkward Array is a Scikit-HEP Python package that enables data analysis with array-at-a-time operations to implement cuts as slices, combinatorics as composable functions, etc. However, most C++ HEP libraries, such as FastJet, have an imperative, one-particle-at-a-time interface, which would be inefficient in Python and goes against the grain of the array-at-a-time logic of scientific Python. Therefore, we developed fastjet, a pip-installable Python package that provides FastJet C++ binaries, the classic (particle-at-a-time) Python interface, and the new array-oriented interface for use with Awkward Array. The new interface streamlines interoperability with scientific Python software beyond HEP, such as machine learning. In one case, adopting this library along with other array-oriented tools accelerated HEP analysis code by a factor of 20. It was designed to be easily integrated with libraries in the Scikit-HEP ecosystem, including Uproot (file I/O), hist (histogramming), Vector (Lorentz vectors), and Coffea (high-level glue). We discuss the design of the fastjet Python library, integrating the classic interface with the array oriented interface and with the Vector library for Lorentz vector operations. The new interface was developed as open source.

In July 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the CERN Large Hadron Collider announced the observation of a Higgs boson at a mass of around 125 gigaelectronvolts. Ten years later, and with the data corresponding to the production of a 30-times larger number of Higgs bosons, we have learnt much more about the properties of the Higgs boson. The CMS experiment has observed the Higgs boson in numerous fermionic and bosonic decay channels, established its spin–parity quantum numbers, determined its mass and measured its production cross-sections in various modes. Here the CMS Collaboration reports the most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson, including the most stringent limit on the cross-section for the production of a pair of Higgs bosons, on the basis of data from proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 teraelectronvolts. Within the uncertainties, all these observations are compatible with the predictions of the standard model of elementary particle physics. Much evidence points to the fact that the standard model is a low-energy approximation of a more comprehensive theory. Several of the standard model issues originate in the sector of Higgs boson physics. An order of magnitude larger number of Higgs bosons, expected to be examined over the next 15 years, will help deepen our understanding of this crucial sector. The most up-to-date combination of results on the properties of the Higgs boson is reported, which indicate that its properties are consistent with the standard model predictions, within the precision achieved to date.

New sets of CMS underlying-event parameters (“tunes”) are presented for the pythia 8 event generator. These tunes use the NNPDF3.1 parton distribution functions (PDFs) at leading (LO), next-to-leading (NLO), or next-to-next-to-leading (NNLO) orders in perturbative quantum chromodynamics, and the strong coupling evolution at LO or NLO. Measurements of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum densities at various hadron collision energies are fit simultaneously to determine the parameters of the tunes. Comparisons of the predictions of the new tunes are provided for observables sensitive to the event shapes at LEP, global underlying event, soft multiparton interactions, and double-parton scattering contributions. In addition, comparisons are made for observables measured in various specific processes, such as multijet, Drell–Yan, and top quark-antiquark pair production including jet substructure observables. The simulation of the underlying event provided by the new tunes is interfaced to a higher-order matrix-element calculation. For the first time, predictions from pythia 8 obtained with tunes based on NLO or NNLO PDFs are shown to reliably describe minimum-bias and underlying-event data with a similar level of agreement to predictions from tunes using LO PDF sets.

A bstract Evidence for Higgs boson decay to a pair of muons is presented. This result combines searches in four exclusive categories targeting the production of the Higgs boson via gluon fusion, via vector boson fusion, in association with a vector boson, and in association with a top quark-antiquark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb − 1 , recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. An excess of events over the back- ground expectation is observed in data with a significance of 3.0 standard deviations, where the expectation for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson with mass of 125.38 GeV is 2.5. The combination of this result with that from data recorded at s = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 and 19.7 fb − 1 , respectively, increases both the expected and observed significances by 1%. The measured signal strength, relative to the SM prediction, is 1.19 − 0.39 + 0.40 stat − 0.14 + 0.15 syst . This result constitutes the first evidence for the decay of the Higgs boson to second generation fermions and is the most precise measurement of the Higgs boson coupling to muons reported to date.

A bstract Results are reported from a search for supersymmetric particles in the final state with multiple jets and large missing transverse momentum. The search uses a sample of proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector in 2016–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb − 1 , representing essentially the full LHC Run 2 data sample. The analysis is performed in a four-dimensional search region defined in terms of the number of jets, the number of tagged bottom quark jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta, and the magnitude of the vector sum of jet transverse momenta. No significant excess in the event yield is observed relative to the expected background contributions from standard model processes. Limits on the pair production of gluinos and squarks are obtained in the framework of simplified models for supersymmetric particle production and decay processes. Assuming the lightest supersymmetric particle to be a neutralino, lower limits on the gluino mass as large as 2000 to 2310 GeV are obtained at 95% confidence level, while lower limits on the squark mass as large as 1190 to 1630 GeV are obtained, depending on the production scenario.

Since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, detailed studies of its properties have been ongoing. Besides its mass, its width—related to its lifetime—is an important parameter. One way to determine this quantity is to measure its off-shell production, where the Higgs boson mass is far away from its nominal value, and relating it to its on-shell production, where the mass is close to the nominal value. Here we report evidence for such off-shell contributions to the production cross-section of two Z bosons with data from the CMS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We constrain the total rate of the off-shell Higgs boson contribution beyond the Z boson pair production threshold, relative to its standard model expectation, to the interval [0.0061, 2.0] at the 95% confidence level. The scenario with no off-shell contribution is excluded at a p -value of 0.0003 (3.6 standard deviations). We measure the width of the Higgs boson as Γ H = 3.2 − 1.7 + 2.4 MeV , in agreement with the standard model expectation of 4.1 MeV. In addition, we set constraints on anomalous Higgs boson couplings to W and Z boson pairs. The CMS Collaboration reports evidence for off-shell Higgs boson contributions in the production of Z boson pairs, and measures the width of the Higgs boson, which is inversely related to its lifetime.

A bstract Jet production in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV is studied with the CMS detector at the LHC, using PbPb and pp data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 404 μ b − 1 and 27.4 pb − 1 , respectively. Jets with different areas are reconstructed using the anti- k T algorithm by varying the distance parameter R . The measurements are performed using jets with transverse momenta ( p T ) greater than 200 GeV and in a pseudorapidity range of |η| < 2. To reveal the medium modification of the jet spectra in PbPb collisions, the properly normalized ratio of spectra from PbPb and pp data is used to extract jet nuclear modification factors as functions of the PbPb collision centrality, p T and, for the first time, as a function of R up to 1.0. For the most central collisions, a strong suppression is observed for high- p T jets reconstructed with all distance parameters, implying that a significant amount of jet energy is scattered to large angles. The dependence of jet suppression on R is expected to be sensitive to both the jet energy loss mechanism and the medium response, and so the data are compared to several modern event generators and analytic calculations. The models considered do not fully reproduce the data.

A bstract The first collider search for dark matter arising from a strongly coupled hidden sector is presented and uses a data sample corresponding to 138 fb −1 , collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, at s = 13 TeV. The hidden sector is hypothesized to couple to the standard model (SM) via a heavy leptophobic Z′ mediator produced as a resonance in proton-proton collisions. The mediator decay results in two “semivisible” jets, containing both visible matter and invisible dark matter. The final state therefore includes moderate missing energy aligned with one of the jets, a signature ignored by most dark matter searches. No structure in the dijet transverse mass spectra compatible with the signal is observed. Assuming the Z′ boson has a universal coupling of 0.25 to the SM quarks, an inclusive search, relevant to any model that exhibits this kinematic behavior, excludes mediator masses of 1.5–4.0 TeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the other signal model parameters. To enhance the sensitivity of the search for this particular class of hidden sector models, a boosted decision tree (BDT) is trained using jet substructure variables to distinguish between semivisible jets and SM jets from background processes. When the BDT is employed to identify each jet in the dijet system as semivisible, the mediator mass exclusion increases to 5.1 TeV, for wider ranges of the other signal model parameters. These limits exclude a wide range of strongly coupled hidden sector models for the first time.

A bstract A search for direct top squark pair production is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2016, 2017, and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb −1 . The search is carried out using events with a single isolated electron or muon, multiple jets, and large transverse momentum imbalance. The observed data are consistent with the expectations from standard model processes. Exclusions are set in the context of simplified top squark pair production models. Depending on the model, exclusion limits at 95% confidence level for top squark masses up to 1.2 TeV are set for a massless lightest supersymmetric particle, assumed to be the neutralino. For models with top squark masses of 1 TeV, neutralino masses up to 600 GeV are excluded.