Application of the matrix element method to Higgs boson pair production in the channel $\textrm{HH} \to \textrm{b}\bar{\textrm{b}}\textrm{W}\textrm{W}^{*}$ at the LHC

Abstract

We apply the matrix element method (MEM) to the search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair ($\textrm{HH}$) production in the channel $\textrm{HH} \to \textrm{b}\bar{\textrm{b}}\textrm{W}\textrm{W}^{*}$ at the LHC and study the separation between the $\textrm{HH}$ signal and the large irreducible background, which arises from the production of top quark pairs ($\textrm{t}\bar{\textrm{t}}$). Our study focuses on events containing two leptons (electrons or muons) in the final state. The separation between signal and background is studied for experimental conditions characteristic for the ATLAS and CMS experiments during LHC Run $2$, using the DELPHES fast-simulation package. We find that the $\textrm{t}\bar{\textrm{t}}$ background can be reduced to a level of $0.26\%$ for a signal efficiency of $35\%$.