Speaker
Description
Charged Higgs bosons are predicted in many extensions to the Standard Model and represent a direct signature of an extended Higgs sector. This talk presents the ATLAS Run 2 results of searches for charged Higgs bosons decaying to a tau lepton and a neutrino, using 140fb-1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at √s = 13 TeV. Depending on the charged Higgs boson mass, it is produced either in top-quark decays or in association with a top-quark. During this process, a W boson is also produced, which decays either hadronically or semi- leptonically. Depending on this decay, the search targets τ+jets or τ+lepton final states. The tau lepton decays into a neutrino and hadrons are considered. Discrimination between signal and background is based on neural network parametrized as a function of charged Higgs mass. No significant excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed and exclusion limits are set on the charged Higgs production cross-section times branching ratio at 95% confidence level for the whole examined mass range.