Search for Higgs boson exotic decays into Lorentz-boosted light bosons in the four-$τ$ final state at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of low-mass scalars that subsequently decay into $\tau$-leptons, $H\rightarrow aa\rightarrow \tau^+\tau^-\tau^+\tau^-$, is presented. In models with Yukawa-like couplings, the decay to $\tau$-leptons is favoured for light $a$-bosons, with mass in the range of $2m_{\tau} < m_a < 2m_{b}$. Results are presented in the range of $4\,\mathrm{GeV} < m_a < 15\,\mathrm{GeV} $ using the $140\,\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. This search focuses on di-$\tau$ pairs where one of the $\tau$-leptons decays to hadrons and neutrinos, and the other decays to a muon and neutrinos. In this mass range, the $a\rightarrow \tau^+\tau^-$ is Lorentz-boosted and a dedicated muon removal technique is used to reconstruct the di-$\tau$ pairs. No significant excess above the Standard Model background prediction is observed. Upper limits on $(\sigma(H)/\sigma_{\mathrm{SM}}(H))\times \mathcal{B}(H\rightarrow aa\rightarrow 4\tau)$ at $95\%$ confidence level are provided, ranging from $0.03$ to $0.10$ depending on the $a$-boson mass.