Limits on an Exotic Higgs Decay From a Recast ATLAS Four-Lepton Analysis

Abstract

The ATLAS collaboration, using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV collisions from the Large Hadron Collider, has placed limits on the decay of a $Z$ boson to three dark photons. We reproduce the results of the ATLAS analysis, and then recast it as a limit on a exotic Higgs decay mode, in which the Higgs boson decays via a pair of intermediate (pseudo)scalars $a$ to four dark photons $V$ (or some other spin-one meson). Across the mass range for $m_a$ and $m_V$, we find limits on the exotic Higgs branching fraction BR$(H\to aa \to VVVV)$ in the range of $4\times 10^{-5}$ to $1 \times 10^{-4}$.