Combined search for anomalous pseudoscalar HVV couplings in VH production and H to VV decay

Abstract

A search for anomalous pseudoscalar couplings of the Higgs boson H to electroweak vector bosons V (= W or Z) in a sample of proton-proton collision events corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.9 inverse femtobarns at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV is presented. Events consistent with the topology of associated VH production, where the Higgs boson decays to a pair of bottom quarks and the vector boson decays leptonically, are analyzed. The consistency of data with a potential pseudoscalar contribution to the HVV interaction, expressed by the effective pseudoscalar cross section fractions f[a3], is assessed by means of profile likelihood scans. Results are given for the VH channels alone and for a combined analysis of the VH and previously published H to VV channels. Under certain assumptions, f[a3](ZZ) > 0.0034 is excluded at 95% confidence level in the combination. Scenarios in which these assumptions are relaxed are also considered.