Search for a heavy pseudoscalar Higgs boson decaying to a 125 GeV Higgs boson and a Z boson in final states with two tau and two light leptons in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV

A bstract A search for a heavy pseudoscalar Higgs boson, A, decaying to a 125 GeV Higgs boson h and a Z boson is presented. The h boson is identified via its decay to a pair of tau leptons, while the Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of electrons or muons. The search targets the production of the A boson via the gluon-gluon fusion process, gg → A, and in association with bottom quarks, $$\text{b}\overline{\text{b}}\text{A }$$ . The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb − 1 collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ TeV. Constraints are set on the product of the cross sections of the A production mechanisms and the A → Zh decay branching fraction. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level ranges from 0.049 (0.060) pb to 1.02 (0.79) pb for the gg → A process and from 0.053 (0.059) pb to 0.79 (0.61) pb for the $$\text{b}\overline{\text{b}}\text{A }$$ process in the probed range of the A boson mass, m A , from 225 GeV to 1 TeV. The results of the search are used to constrain parameters within the $${\text{M}}_{\text{h},\text{EFT}}^{125}$$ benchmark scenario of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model. Values of tan β below 2.2 are excluded in this scenario at 95% confidence level for all m A values in the range from 225 to 350 GeV.

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