A Study of the Standard Model Higgs Boson in the $H \to WW^* \to \ell\nu\ell\nu$ Decay Channel in the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC

The authors within the Higgs Boson Working Group of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC performed an analysis of events with two leptons and two hadron jets to study Standard Model Higgs boson properties in the H → WW* → 𝓁ν𝓁ν decay channel in the vector boson fusion production mechanism. The analysis was based on full statistics of proton–proton interactions taken during 2015–2018 exposures at √s = 13 TeV. For the final state with one electron and one muon the study is completed. The observed and expected statistical significances of the signal were calculated without taking into account systematic uncertainties. An investigation of final states with two electrons and two muons and at least two hadronic jets has been started. Signal selection criteria are proposed and a strategy to subtract the main background from Drell–Yan processes was chosen. It is shown that experimental kinematical distributions are reproduced by the MC simulations.