@article{10902/38502, year = {2025}, month = {10}, url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10902/38502}, abstract = {A search for a heavy pseudoscalar Higgs boson, A, decaying to a 125 GeV Higgs boson h and a Z boson is presented. The h boson is identified via its decay to a pair of tau leptons, while the Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of electrons or muons. The search targets the production of the A boson via the gluon-gluon fusion process, gg --> A, and in association with bottom quarks, bb¯A. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb-1 collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of V¯s = 13 TeV. Constraints are set on the product of the cross sections of the A production mechanisms and the A --> Zh decay branching fraction. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level ranges from 0.049 (0.060) pb to 1.02 (0.79) pb for the gg --> A process and from 0.053 (0.059) pb to 0.79 (0.61) pb for the bb¯A process in the probed range of the A boson mass, mA, from 225 GeV to 1 TeV. The results of the search are used to constrain parameters within the M125h,EFT benchmark scenario of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Values of tan B below 2.2 are excluded in this scenario at 95% confidence level for all mA values in the range from 225 to 350 GeV.}, organization = {We congratulate our colleagues in the CERN accelerator departments for the excellent performance of the LHC and thank the technical and administrative staffs at CERN and at other CMS institutes for their contributions to the success of the CMS effort. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge the computing centres and personnel of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid and other centres for delivering so effectively the computing infrastructure essential to our analyses. Finally, we acknowledge the enduring support for the construction and operation of the LHC, the CMS detector, and the supporting computing infrastructure provided by the following funding agencies: SC (Armenia), BMBWF and FWF (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq, CAPES, FAPERJ, FAPERGS, and FAPESP (Brazil); MES and BNSF (Bulgaria); CERN; CAS, MoST, and NSFC (China); MINCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES and CSF (Croatia); RIF (Cyprus); SENESCYT (Ecuador); ERC PRG, RVTT3 and MoER TK202 (Estonia); Academy of Finland, MEC, and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); SRNSF (Georgia); BMBF, DFG, and HGF (Germany); GSRI (Greece); NKFIH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); MSIP and NRF (Republic of Korea); MES (Latvia); LMTLT (Lithuania); MOE and UM (Malaysia); BUAP, CINVESTAV, CONACYT, LNS, SEP, and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); MOS (Montenegro); MBIE (New Zealand); PAEC (Pakistan); MES and NSC (Poland); FCT (Portugal); MESTD (Serbia); MCIN/AEI and PCTI (Spain); MOSTR (Sri Lanka); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); MST (Taipei); MHESI and NSTDA (Thailand); TUBITAK and TENMAK (Turkey); NASU (Ukraine); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (U.S.A.). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie programme and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract Nos. 675440, 724704, 752730, 758316, 765710, 824093, 101115353, 101002207, and COST Action CA16108 (European Union); the Leventis Foundation; the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation; the Science Committee, project no. 22rl-037 (Armenia); the Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, No. Z191100007219010 and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China); the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic; the Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation, grant FR-22-985 (Georgia); the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), among others, under Germany’s Excellence Strategy — EXC 2121 “Quantum Universe” — 390833306, and under project number 400140256 — GRK2497; the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI), Project Number 2288 (Greece); the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the New National Excellence Program — ÚNKP, the NKFIH research grants K 131991, K 133046, K 138136, K 143460, K 143477, K 146913, K 146914, K 147048, 2020-2.2.1-ED-2021-00181, TKP2021-NKTA-64, and 2021-4.1.2-NEMZ_KI-2024-00036 (Hungary); the Council of Science and Industrial Research, India; ICSC — National Research Centre for High Performance Computing, Big Data and Quantum Computing and FAIR — Future Artificial Intelligence Research, funded by the NextGenerationEU program (Italy); the Latvian Council of Science; the Ministry of Education and Science, project no. 2022/WK/14, and the National Science Center, contracts Opus 2021/41/B/ST2/01369 and 2021/43/B/ST2/01552 (Poland); the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, grant CEECIND/01334/2018 (Portugal); the National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund; MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, ERDF “a way of making Europe”, and the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2017-0765 and Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias (Spain); the Chulalongkorn Academic into Its 2nd Century Project Advancement Project, and the National Science, Research and Innovation Fund via the Program Management Unit for Human Resources & Institutional Development, Research and Innovation, grant B39G670016 (Thailand); the Kavli Foundation; the Nvidia Corporation; the SuperMicro Corporation; the Welch Foundation, contract C-1845; and the Weston Havens Foundation (U.S.A.).}, publisher = {Springer}, publisher = {Journal of High Energy Physics, 2025, 2025(10), 74}, title = {Search for a heavy pseudoscalar Higgs boson decaying to a 125 GeV Higgs boson and a Z boson in final states with two tau and two light leptons in proton-proton collisions at V¯s = 13 TeV}, author = {Chekhovsky, V. and Hayrapetyan, A. and Makarenko, V. and Blanco Fernández, Sergio and Cabrillo Bartolomé, José Ibán and Calderón Tazón, Alicia and Duarte Campderros, Jorge and Fernández García, Marcos and Gómez Gramuglio, Gervasio and Lasaosa García, Clara and López Ruiz, Rubén and Martínez Rivero, Celso and Martínez Ruiz del Árbol, Pablo and Matorras Weinig, Francisco and Matorras Cuevas, Pablo and Navarrete Ramos, Efrén and Piedra Gómez, Jonatan and Scodellaro, Luca and Vila Álvarez, Iván and Vizán García, Jesús Manuel}, }