Experimental Seminars in Particle Physics
Higgs couplings to second generation of fermions at the LHC and HL-LHC
by
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Europe/Zurich
Description
Probing the Higgs boson coupling to fermions of the second generation is one of the last experimentally accessible frontiers In the direct measurement of Higgs boson couplings at the LHC. This seminar highlights the first evidence for the rare Higgs boson decay to muons, obtained by the CMS Collaboration using the full dataset collected at 13 TeV during Run-2 of the LHC. This milestone was achieved earlier than expected thanks to the excellent performance of the CMS detector, with high precision tracking and muon reconstruction systems, and also through the development of novel analysis strategies that include use of machine learning techniques.
The latest measurement for the Higgs boson coupling to charm quarks with the CMS detector is also reported. A direct measurement of this coupling is very challenging at hadron colliders because of the overwhelming QCD multi-jet background. In order to increase the signal-to-background ratio, the search targets Higgs bosons produced in association with a weak boson (W or Z). The use of advanced machine learning algorithms and the precise estimate of the leading background from multiple control regions in data allowed the CMS Collaboration to set the strongest bound on the H→cc branching fraction reported to date.
Finally, prospects for these measurements at the HL-LHC are discussed. The emphasis is focused on the performance impact of the various CMS detector upgrades expected for the HL-LHC.