Search

A search for dark matter particles is performed by looking for events with large transverse momentum imbalance and a recoiling Higgs boson decaying to either a pair of photons or a pair of τ leptons. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected at the CERN LHC in 2016 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{−1}$. No significant excess over the expected standard model background is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are presented for the product of the production cross section and branching fraction in the context of two benchmark simplified models. For the Z$^{′}$-two-Higgs-doublet model (where Z$^{′}$ is a new massive boson mediator) with an intermediate heavy pseudoscalar particle of mass m$_{A}$ = 300 GeV and m$_{DM}$ = 100 GeV, the Z$^{′}$ masses from 550 GeV to 1265 GeV are excluded. For a baryonic Z$^{′}$ model, with m$_{DM}$ = 1 GeV, Z$^{′}$ masses up to 615 GeV are excluded. Results are also presented for the spin-independent cross section for the dark matter-nucleon interaction as a function of the mass of the dark matter particle. This is the first search for dark matter particles produced in association with a Higgs boson decaying to two τ leptons.

Pseudorapidity, transverse momentum, and multiplicity distributions are measured in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta | < 2.4$ for charged particles with transverse momenta satisfying $p_{\mathrm {T}} > 0.5\,\text {GeV} $ in proton–proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13\,\text {TeV} $ . Measurements are presented in three different event categories. The most inclusive of the categories corresponds to an inelastic $\mathrm {p}$ $\mathrm {p}$ data set, while the other two categories are exclusive subsets of the inelastic sample that are either enhanced or depleted in single diffractive dissociation events. The measurements are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions in collider and cosmic-ray physics.