Search for $\text{H} \to \text{b}\bar{\text{b}}$ in association with a single top quark at CMS

Denise Mueller

Published 2017-11-20Version 1

A search for the production of a Higgs boson in association with a single top quark (tH) is performed using the decay $\text{H} \to \text{b}\bar{\text{b}}$. This Higgs boson production mode is sensitive to the coupling modifiers of the Higgs boson to top quarks ($\kappa_{\text{t}}$) and to weak gauge bosons ($\kappa_{\text{V}}$) and thus can be used to lift the degeneracy regarding the sign of the top quark Yukawa coupling. The 2015 pp collisions data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are analyzed. Boosted decision trees are used to reconstruct and classify the events. Upper limits on the tH production cross section are determined at 51 different points in the $\kappa_{\text{t}} - \kappa_{\text{V}}$ plane.