Search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark is presented. The data analysed correspond to 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The production of a heavy charged Higgs boson in association with a top quark and a bottom quark, pp -> tbH(+) -> tbtb, is explored in the H+ mass range from 200 to 2000 GeV using final states with jets and one electron or muon. Events are categorised according to the multiplicity of jets and b-tagged jets, and multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate between signal and background events. No significant excess above the background-only hypothesis is observed and exclusion limits are derived for the production cross-section times branching ratio of a charged Higgs boson as a function of its mass; they range from 3.6 pb at 200 GeV to 0.036 pb at 2000 GeV at 95% confidence level. The results are interpreted in the hMSSM and M-h(125) scenarios.

Automated summary

The search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark is explored using data from proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Multivariate analysis techniques were used to discriminate between signal and background events, and exclusion limits for the production of charged Higgs bosons were derived. The results do not show any significant excess above the background-only hypothesis.