Evidence for four-top quark production in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV

Abstract

The production of four top quarks (tt over bar tt over bar ) is studied with LHC proton-proton collision data samples collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and corresponding to integrated luminosities of up to 138 fb-1. Events that have no leptons (all-hadronic), one lepton, or two oppositesign leptons (where lepton refers only to prompt electrons or prompt muons) are considered. This is the first tt over bar tt over bar measurement that includes the all-hadronic final state. The observed significance of the tt over bar tt over bar signal in these final states of 3.9 standard deviations (1.5 expected) provides evidence for tt over bar tt over bar production, with a measured cross section of 36+12 signal significance is 4.0 standard deviations (3.2 expected). The combination returns an observed cross section of 17 +/- 4 (stat) +/- 3 (syst) fb, which is consistent with the standard model prediction. (c) 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons .org /licenses /by /4 .0/). Funded by SCOAP3.