Search for Invisible Decays of a Higgs Boson Produced in Association with a Z Boson in ATLAS

Abstract

A search for evidence of invisible-particle decay modes of a Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. No deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed in 4.5 fb$^{-1}$ (20.3 fb$^{-1}$) of 7 (8) TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming the Standard Model rate for ZH production, an upper limit of 75%, at the 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio to invisible-particle decay modes of the Higgs boson at a mass of 125.5 GeV. The limit on the branching ratio is also interpreted in terms of an upper limit on the allowed dark matter--nucleon scattering cross section within a Higgs-portal dark matter scenario. Limits are also set on an additional neutral Higgs boson, in the mass range 110<mH<400 GeV, produced in association with a Z boson and decaying to invisible particles.