Hayrapetyan, A.Tumasyan, A.Adam, W.Andrejkovic, J.W.Bergauer, T.Chatterjee, S.Scodellaro, L.2025-05-112025-05-1120241029-8479https://doi.org/10.1007/JHEP06(2024)097A search is presented for the decay of the 125 GeV Higgs boson (H) to a pair of new light pseudoscalar bosons (a), followed by the prompt decay of each a boson to a bottom quark-antiquark pair, H→aa→bb¯bb¯. The analysis is performed using a data sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. To reduce the background from standard model processes, the search requires the Higgs boson to be produced in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. The analysis probes the production of new light bosons in a 15 < ma < 60 GeV mass range. Assuming the standard model predictions for the Higgs boson production cross sections for pp → WH and ZH, model independent upper limits at 95% confidence level are derived for the branching fraction BH→aa→bb¯bb¯. The combined WH and ZH observed upper limit on the branching fraction ranges from 1.10 for ma = 20 GeV to 0.36 for ma = 60 GeV, complementing other measurements in the μμττ, ττττ and bbℓℓ (ℓ = μ, τ) channels. © The Author(s) 2024.eninfo:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccessBeyond Standard ModelHadron-Hadron ScatteringSupersymmetryArticle10.1007/JHEP06(2024)0972-s2.0-105008509597