Reconstruction and identification of boosted di-tau systems in a search for Higgs boson pairs using 13 TeV proton-proton collision data in ATLAS

Abstract

In this paper, a new technique for reconstructing and identifying hadronically decaying tau (+)tau (-) pairs with a large Lorentz boost, referred to as the di-tau tagger, is developed and used for the first time in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. A benchmark di-tau tagging selection is employed in the search for resonant Higgs boson pair production, where one Higgs boson decays into a boosted bb pair and the other into a boosted tau (+)tau (-) pair, with two hadronically decaying tau -leptons in the final state. Using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, the efficiency of the di-tau tagger is determined and the background with quark- or gluon-initiated jets misidentified as di-tau objects is estimated. The search for a heavy, narrow, scalar resonance produced via gluon-gluon fusion and decaying into two Higgs bosons is carried out in the mass range 1-3 TeV using the same dataset. No deviations from the Standard Model predictions are observed, and 95% confidence-level exclusion limits are set on this model.