Searches for Invisibly Decaying Higgs Boson Produced with an associated Z boson with ATLAS

A search for evidence of invisible-particle decay modes of a Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. No deviation from the standard model expectation is observed in 4.5 f b −1 (20.3 f b −1 ) of 7 (8) TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment. Assuming the standard model rate for ZH production, an upper limit of 75%, at the 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio to invisible-particle decay modes of the Higgs boson at a mass of 125.5 GeV. The limit on the branching ratio is also interpreted in terms of an upper limit on the allowed dark matter-nucleon scattering cross section within a Higgs-portal dark matter scenario. Within the constraints of such a scenario, the results presented here provide the limits for low-mass dark matter candidates. Limits are also set on an additional neutral Higgs boson, in the mass range 110 < m H < 400 GeV, produced in association with a Z boson and decaying to invisible particles.