Measurement of exclusive $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow W^+W^-$ production and search for exclusive Higgs boson production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV using the ATLAS detector

• Main Author: ATLAS collaboration (2860 authors)
• Publication Date: 2016
• Other Authors: Aguilar-Saavedra, Juan Antonio, Amor Dos Santos, Susana Patricia, Anjos, Nuno, Araque, Juan Pedro, Cantrill, Robert, Carvalho, João, Castro, Nuno Filipe, Conde Muiño, Patricia, Da Cunha Sargedas De Sousa, Mario Jose, Fiolhais, Miguel, Galhardo, Bruno, Gomes, Agostinho, Gonçalo, Ricardo, Jorge, Pedro, Lopes, Lourenco, Machado Miguens, Joana, Maio, Amélia, Maneira, José, Oleiro Seabra, Luis Filipe, Onofre, António, Pedro, Rute, Santos, Helena, Saraiva, João, Silva, José, Tavares Delgado, Ademar, Veloso, Filipe, Wolters, Helmut
• Format: Article
• Language: eng
• Source: Repositórios Científicos de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (RCAAP)
• Download full: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.94.032011; http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/27141

Searches for exclusively produced W boson pairs in the process pp(γγ)→pW+W-p and an exclusively produced Higgs boson in the process pp(gg)→pHp have been performed using e±μ∓ final states. These measurements use 20.2  fb-1 of pp collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy s=8  TeV at the LHC. Exclusive production of W+W- consistent with the Standard Model prediction is found with 3.0σ significance. The exclusive W+W- production cross section is determined to be σ(γγ→W+W-→e±μ∓X)=6.9±2.2(stat)±1.4(sys)  fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. Limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings are set at 95% confidence level as -1.7×10-6<a0W/Λ2<1.7×10-6  GeV-2 and -6.4×10-6<aCW/Λ2<6.3×10-6  GeV-2. A 95% confidence-level upper limit on the total production cross section for an exclusive Higgs boson is set to 1.2 pb.