Search for charged Higgs bosons produced in vector boson fusion processes and decaying into vector boson pairs in proton–proton collisions at √s=13TeV

Abstract

A search for charged Higgs bosons produced in vector boson fusion processes and decaying into vector bosons, using proton–proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13\,{\text {TeV}} $$ s = 13 TeV at the LHC, is reported. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 $$\,{\text {fb}}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 collected with the CMS detector. Events are selected by requiring two or three electrons or muons, moderate missing transverse momentum, and two jets with a large rapidity separation and a large dijet mass. No excess of events with respect to the standard model background predictions is observed. Model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are reported on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for vector boson fusion production of charged Higgs bosons as a function of mass, from 200 to 3000 $$\,{\text {GeV}}$$ GeV . The results are interpreted in the context of the Georgi–Machacek model.