Search for Doubly-charged Higgs Boson Production in the Decay $Higgs^{++}Higgs^{--} \to \mu^{+}\mu^{+}\mu^{-}\mu^{-}$ with the D0 detector at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV$

This work presents a search for the pair production of doubly-charged Higgs Bosons in the process pp&macr; &rarr; H<super>++</super>H<super>&minus;&minus; </super> &rarr; &mu;<super>+</super>&mu;<super>+</super>&mu;<super>&minus; </super>&mu;<super>&minus;</super> using inclusive dimuon events. These data correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 113 pb<super>&minus;1</super> and were recorded by the D&Oslash; experiment between August 2002 and June 2003. In the absence of a signal, 95% confidence level mass limits of <italic> M</italic>(<math> <f> <rm>H^{&plusmn;&plusmn;}<inf>L</inf></rm></f> </math>) > 118.6 GeV/c<super>2</super> and <italic>M</italic>(<math> <f> <rm>H^{&plusmn;&plusmn;}<inf>R</inf></rm></f> </math>) > 98.1 GeV/c<super>2</super> are set for left- handed and right-handed doubly-charged Higgs boson, assuming 100% branching into muons and hypercharge |<italic>Y</italic>| = 2 and Yukawa, coupling <italic>h</italic>_&mu;&mu; > 10<super>&minus;7</super>. This is the first search for doubly-charged Higgs bosons at hadron colliders. It, significantly extends the previous mass limit of 100.5 GeV/c<super>2</super> for a left-handed doubly-charged Higgs boson measured in the muon final states by the OPAL collaboration.