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arXiv · 2608.10148

Search for a resonance in events with four top quarks decaying into two leptons and jets in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

A search for a heavy resonance in events containing four top quarks is presented and interpreted in models featuring a new vector, scalar, or pseudoscalar boson that interacts exclusively with top quarks. Proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC at centre-of-mass energies of 13 and 13.6 TeV are analysed, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 138 and 35 fb$^{-1}$, respectively. Events with two leptons (electrons or muons) and jets are selected. The mass of the heavy resonance is reconstructed from a pair of jets that are formed using a variable-radius jet clustering algorithm. A machine-learning approach is used to identify whether these jets originate from top quarks that decay fully hadronically. The dominant background from misidentified jets is estimated from data as a function of the dijet invariant mass. No significant excess is observed in data. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the resonance production cross section for resonance masses between 500 GeV and 4 TeV, and relative widths ranging from 4 to 50%. In the vector-mediator benchmark, resonances with 50% relative width are excluded up to masses of 850 GeV, with an expected exclusion limit of 1000 GeV. This is the first dedicated search for these models in the two lepton channel.

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CMS Collaboration. 2026-08-10. Search for a resonance in events with four top quarks decaying into two leptons and jets in proton-proton collisions. https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.10148

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