Search for narrow high-mass resonances in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV decaying to a Z and a Higgs boson

Understand

The first search for a narrow, high-mass resonance decaying into Z and Higgs (H) bosons is presented.

• The final state studied consists of a merged jet pair and a tau pair resulting from the decays of Z and H bosons, respectively.
• The analysis is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, collected with the CMS experiment in 2012, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns.
• In the resonance mass range of interest, which extends from 0.8 to 2.5 TeV, the Z and H bosons are produced with large momenta, which implies that the final products of the two quarks or the two tau leptons must be detected within a small angular interval.