Probing Massive Invisible Dark Photons in Higgs Decays via Gluon--Gluon Fusion at ATLAS Run 3
Abstract
The ATLAS Collaboration has searched for Higgs-boson decays into a photon and missing transverse momentum using 135 fb−1 of Run~3 proton--proton collision data at √s=13.6 TeV. For the benchmark decay H→γgD with a massless invisible dark photon, ATLAS reports observed (expected) 95\% confidence-level limits of 1.4% (1.2%) on the branching fraction. We reinterpret this search for a massive detector-invisible dark photon with 0≤ mgD≤70 gev, focusing on Higgs production through gluon--gluon fusion. \audit{The relative signal acceptance, normalized to the massless benchmark, remains nearly unchanged up to mgD≃40 gev, but decreases to $0.888$, $0.736$, and $0.524$ at $50$, $60$, and 70 gev, respectively, as the photon-pT and transverse-mass spectra move toward the analysis thresholds.} Using the published massless gluon--gluon-fusion yield for normalization, we obtain simplified expected (observed) 95\% confidence-level limits on BR(H→γgD) from 1.64% (1.76%) at mgD=30 gev to 3.50% (3.75%) at 70 gev. These results extend the ATLAS interpretation to massive invisible dark photons and quantify the resulting loss of sensitivity at large dark-photon mass.
Related
- Search for dark photons from Higgs boson decays in the gluon-gluon fusion channel in proton-proton collisions at √s=13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector
- Search for dark photons from Higgs boson decays in the gluon-gluon fusion channel in proton-proton collisions at √s=13.6 TeV with the ATLAS detector
- Signatures of Invisible Fermions in Λb0 → Λc+ ℓ- X̅inv Decays
- Dark photons in exotic Higgs boson decays at FCC-ee
- Vertexing displaced diphoton decays with recoil photons at Belle II
BibTeX
@misc{ahmed2026probing,
title = {{Probing Massive Invisible Dark Photons in Higgs Decays via Gluon--Gluon Fusion at ATLAS Run 3}},
author = {Waqas Ahmed and Ammara Ahmad and Shabbar Raza},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.24527},
eprint = {2609.24527},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24527},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Probing Massive Invisible Dark Photons in Higgs Decays via Gluon--Gluon Fusion at ATLAS Run 3
AU - Waqas Ahmed
AU - Ammara Ahmad
AU - Shabbar Raza
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/21
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.24527
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.24527
AB - The ATLAS Collaboration has searched for Higgs-boson decays into a photon and missing transverse momentum using 135 fb^−1 of Run~3 proton--proton collision data at √s=13.6 TeV. For the benchmark decay H→γgD with a massless invisible dark photon, ATLAS reports observed (expected) 95\% confidence-level limits of 1.4% (1.2%) on the branching fraction. We reinterpret this search for a massive detector-invisible dark photon with 0≤ m_gD≤70 gev, focusing on Higgs production through gluon--gluon fusion. \audit{The relative signal acceptance, normalized to the massless benchmark, remains nearly unchanged up to m_gD≃40 gev, but decreases to $0.888$, $0.736$, and $0.524$ at $50$, $60$, and 70 gev, respectively, as the photon-p_T and transverse-mass spectra move toward the analysis thresholds.} Using the published massless gluon--gluon-fusion yield for normalization, we obtain simplified expected (observed) 95\% confidence-level limits on BR(H→γgD) from 1.64% (1.76%) at m_gD=30 gev to 3.50% (3.75%) at 70 gev. These results extend the ATLAS interpretation to massive invisible dark photons and quantify the resulting loss of sensitivity at large dark-photon mass.
ER -