Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
A search for Higgs boson pair production $pp \rightarrow hh$ is performed with 19.5 fb$^{-1}$ of proton–proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV, which were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The decay products of each Higgs boson are reconstructed as a high-momentum $b\bar{b}$ system with either a pair of small-radius jets or a single large-radius jet, the latter exploiting jet substructure techniques and associated b-tagged track-jets. No evidence for resonant or non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is observed. The data are interpreted in the context of the Randall–Sundrum model with a warped extra dimension as well as the two-Higgs-doublet model. An upper limit on the cross-section for $pp\rightarrow G^{*\mathrm {KK}} \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b} $ of 3.2 (2.3) fb is set for a Kaluza–Klein graviton $G^{*\mathrm {KK}}$ mass of 1.0 (1.5) TeV, at the 95 % confidence level. The search for non-resonant Standard Model hh production sets an observed 95 % confidence level upper limit on the production cross-section $\sigma (pp \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b})$ of 202 fb, compared to a Standard Model prediction of $\sigma (pp \rightarrow hh \rightarrow b\bar{b}b\bar{b}) = 3.6 \pm 0.5$ fb.