Abstract
Abstract:
A direct search for the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to a pair of charm quarks is presented.
Associated production of the Higgs and Z bosons, in the decay mode Z H → f+f−cc¯ is studied. A
dataset with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 of pp collisions
at √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is used. The H → cc¯
signature is identified using charm-tagging algorithms. The observed (expected) upper limit on σ(pp
→ Z H) × B(H → cc¯) is 2.7 (3.9+2.1) pb at the 95% confidence level for a Higgs boson mass of 125
GeV, while the Standard Model value is 26 fb.