{
  "abstract": "A bstract : A first dedicated search for pair production of new scalars predicted by the Inert Doublet Model is performed using proton-proton collisions. Data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC at $$\\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV and 13.6 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 138 fb − 1 and 35 fb − 1 , respectively. Within this model, four additional scalar bosons (H, A, H ⁺ , and H − ) are predicted. Through an additional discrete symmetry, the lightest new scalar, H, is stable, rendering it a viable dark matter candidate. These candidates can originate from quark-antiquark annihilation producing an offshell Z boson that decays to a pair of the new scalars. The target final state consists of exactly two opposite-charge same-flavour leptons (electrons or muons), with missing transverse momentum due to the stable neutral scalars, and very little hadronic activity. A parameterised neural network is used to separate the signal from the standard model background. No significant excess of events is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on the production cross section of the two new neutral scalars, H and A, expressed in terms of their masses, m H and m A , in the m H vs. m A − m H plane. The observed (expected) exclusion region reaches m H = 108 (106) GeV for m A − m H = 78 (76) GeV and at m H = 70 GeV, covers the range of m A − m H = 40–90 (35–90) GeV.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Yerevan Physics Institute",
    "Yerevan State University",
    "Marietta Blau Institute for Particle Physics",
    "TU Wien",
    "Universiteit Antwerpen",
    "Vrije Universiteit Brussel",
    "Ghent University",
    "Université Libre de Bruxelles"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 2532,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "The CMS collaboration"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "A. Gevorgyan",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2751-9489"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "A. Hayrapetyan"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "V. Makarenko",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8406-8605"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "A. Tumasyan",
      "orcid": "0009-0000-0684-6742"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "W. Adam",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9099-4341"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "L. Benato",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5135-7489"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "T. Bergauer",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5786-0293"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "M. Dragicevic",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1967-6783"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "S. Gundacker",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2087-3266"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "P. S. Hussain",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4825-5278"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "M. Jeitler",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5141-9560"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "N. Krammer",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0548-0985"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "A. Li",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-4547-116X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "D. Liko",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3380-473X"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "M. Matthewman"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "J. Schieck",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1058-8093"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "R. Schöfbeck",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2332-8784"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "M. Shooshtari",
      "orcid": "0009-0004-8882-4887"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "M. Sonawane",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-0510-7010"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "N. Van Den Bossche",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-2973-4991"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "W. Waltenberger",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6215-7228"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "C.-E. Wulz",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9226-5812"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "T. Janssen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3998-4081"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "H. Kwon",
      "orcid": "0009-0002-5165-5018"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "D. Ocampo Henao",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-9759-3452"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "T. Van Laer",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7776-2108"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "P. Van Mechelen",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8731-9051"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "D. Ahmadi",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9662-2239"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "J. Bierkens",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-0875-3977"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "N. Breugelmans"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "J. D’Hondt",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-9598-6241"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "S. Dansana",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7752-7471"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "A. De Moor",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5964-1935"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "M. Delcourt",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8206-1787"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "C. Gupta"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "F. Heyen"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Y. Hong",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-4752-2458"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "P. Kashko",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-7050-7152"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "S. Lowette",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-3984-9987"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "I. Makarenko",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-8553-4508"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "S. Nandakumar",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-6774-4037"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "S. Tavernier",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-6792-9522"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5,
        6
      ],
      "name": "M. Tytgat",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3990-2074"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "G. P. Van Onsem",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1664-2337"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "S. Van Putte",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1559-3606"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "D. Vannerom",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-2747-5095"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "T. Wybouw",
      "orcid": "0009-0002-2040-5534"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "A. Beshr"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "B. Bilin",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1439-7128"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "F. Caviglia Roman"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "B. Clerbaux",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8547-8211"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "A. K. Das"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "I. De Bruyn",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1704-4360"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "G. De Lentdecker",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5124-7693"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "E. Ducarme",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-5351-0678"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "H. Evard",
      "orcid": "0009-0005-5039-1462"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "L. Favart",
      "orcid": "0000-0003-1645-7454"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "A. Khalilzadeh"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7
      ],
      "name": "A. Malara",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-8645-9282"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3kkrr4m8hv7dg.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1007/jhep10(2026)249",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "3kkrr4m8hv7dg",
  "issns": [
    "1029-8479"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP10(2026)249",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [],
  "openalex": null,
  "pdf_url": "https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/JHEP10(2026)249.pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-10-26",
  "publisher": "Springer Science and Business Media LLC",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3kkrr4m8hv7dg.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:21:02Z",
      "native_id": "10.1007/jhep10(2026)249",
      "source": "crossref",
      "url": "https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/JHEP10(2026)249"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "issn:1029-8479",
      "subfield": "high-energy"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Search for pair production of additional neutral scalars within the Inert Doublet Model in a final state with two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at $$\\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV and 13.6 TeV",
  "title_text": "Search for pair production of additional neutral scalars within the Inert Doublet Model in a final state with two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV and 13.6 TeV",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-02T00:20:37Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/3kkrr4m8hv7dg",
  "venue": "Journal of High Energy Physics",
  "versions": [
    {
      "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2605.13614",
      "pid": "7wnfx4n36g31x",
      "relation": "preprint",
      "title": "Search for pair production of additional neutral scalars within the Inert Doublet Model in a final state with two electrons or two muons in proton-proton collisions at $\\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV and 13.6 TeV",
      "venue": "arXiv"
    }
  ]
}