# Limits on neutral Higgs boson production in the forward region in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV

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## Abstract

Limits on the cross-section times branching fraction for neutral Higgs bosons, produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV, and decaying to two tau leptons with pseudorapidities between 2.0 and 4.5, are presented. The result is based on a dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$, collected with the LHCb detector. Candidates are identified by reconstructing final states with two muons, a muon and an electron, a muon and a hadron, or an electron and a hadron. A model independent upper limit at the 95 confidence level is set on a neutral Higgs boson cross-section times branching fraction. It varies from 8.6 pb for a Higgs boson mass of 90 GeV to 0.7 pb for a Higgs boson mass of 250 GeV, and is compared to the Standard Model expectation. An upper limit on $\tan\beta$ in the Minimal Supersymmetric Model is set in the $m_{h^0}^\mathrm{max}$ scenario. It ranges from 34 for a CP-odd Higgs boson mass of 90 GeV to 70 for a pseudo-scalar Higgs boson mass of 140 GeV.

## Figures and captions

 Invariant mass distributions for \subref{fig:mumu} ${\tau_\mu\tau_\mu}$ , \subref{fig:mue} ${\tau_\mu\tau_e}$ , \subref{fig:emu} ${\tau_e\tau_\mu}$ , \subref{fig:muh} ${\tau_\mu\tau_ h }$ , \subref{fig:eh} ${\tau_e\tau_ h }$ , and \subref{fig:all} all candidates. The ${ Z \to {\tau\tau} }$ background (solid red) is normalised to the theoretical expectation. The $\mathrm{QCD}$ (horizontal green), electroweak (vertical blue), and $Z$ (solid cyan) backgrounds are estimated from data. The ${t\bar{t}}$ (vertical orange) and ${WW}$ (horizontal magenta) backgrounds are estimated from simulation and generally not visible. The contribution that would be expected from an MSSM signal for ${M_ {A^0} = 125 \mathrm{Ge V} }$ and ${\tan\beta = 60}$ is shown in solid green. H2TauT[..].pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [166 KiB] Thumbnail [98 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [15 KiB] HiDef png [187 KiB] Thumbnail [114 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [163 KiB] Thumbnail [96 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [177 KiB] Thumbnail [108 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [15 KiB] HiDef png [174 KiB] Thumbnail [107 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [15 KiB] HiDef png [408 KiB] Thumbnail [285 KiB] *.C file Model independent combined limit on cross-section by branching fraction for a Higgs boson decaying to two tau leptons at ${95\%}$ ${\mathrm{CL_s}}$ as a function of $M_ {\Phi^0}$ is given on the left. The background only expected limit (dashed red) and ${\pm1\sigma}$ (green) and ${\pm2\sigma}$ (yellow) bands are compared with the observed limit (solid black) and the expected SM theory (dotted black) with uncertainty (grey). The combined MSSM ${95\%}$ ${\mathrm{CL_s}}$ upper limit on ${\tan\beta}$ as a function of $M_ {A^0}$ is given on the right and compared to ATLAS (dotted maroon and dot-dashed magenta), CMS (dot-dot-dashed blue and dot-dot-dot-dashed cyan), and LEP (hatched orange) results. H2TauT[..].pdf [12 KiB] HiDef png [408 KiB] Thumbnail [285 KiB] *.C file H2TauT[..].pdf [13 KiB] HiDef png [408 KiB] Thumbnail [285 KiB] *.C file Animated gif made out of all figures. PAPER-2013-009.gif Thumbnail

Created on 11 July 2020.