Search for nonresonant triple Higgs boson production in the final state with six bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for nonresonant triple Higgs boson (HHH) production in the final state with six bottom quarks is performed using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the CMS experiment. No significant excess of events over the background prediction is seen. Observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limits on the signal cross section are set at 44 (43) fb, corresponding to 588 (572) times the standard model expectation. The observed (expected) constraint on the trilinear coupling modifier $\kappa_3$ is $-$7.4 $\lt$ $\kappa_3$ $\lt$ 12.4 ($-$6.4 $\lt$ \kappa_3 $\lt$ 11.2), assuming the quartic coupling modifier $\kappa_4$ = 1. The corresponding constraint on $\kappa_4$ is $-$177 $\lt$ $\kappa_4$ $\lt$ 185 ($-$180 $\lt$ $\kappa_4$ $\lt$ 190), assuming $\kappa_3$ = 1. This analysis provides the most stringent constraint to date on nonresonant HHH production and excludes, for the first time, part of the $(\kappa_3,\kappa_4)$ space allowed by the perturbative unitarity bound.