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Evidence for Higgs boson decay to a pair of muons is presented. This result combines searches in four exclusive categories targeting the production of the Higgs boson via gluon fusion, via vector boson fusion, in association with a vector boson, and in association with a top quark-antiquark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at s√ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1, recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. An excess of events over the back- ground expectation is observed in data with a significance of 3.0 standard deviations, where the expectation for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson with mass of 125.38 GeV is 2.5. The combination of this result with that from data recorded at s√ = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 and 19.7 fb−1, respectively, increases both the expected and observed significances by 1%. The measured signal strength, relative to the SM prediction, is 1.19+0.40−0.39(stat)+0.15−0.14(syst). This result constitutes the first evidence for the decay of the Higgs boson to second generation fermions and is the most precise measurement of the Higgs boson coupling to muons reported to date. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie programme and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract Nos. 675440, 752730, and 765710 (European Union); the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2015-0509 and the Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias. CMS collaboration: et al. Peer reviewed

Measurements of the second Fourier harmonic coefficient (v2) of the azimuthal distributions of prompt and nonprompt D0 mesons produced in pp and pPb collisions are presented. Nonprompt D0 mesons come from beauty hadron decays. The data samples are collected by the CMS experiment at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of 13 and 8.16 TeV, respectively. In high multiplicity pp collisions, v2 signals for prompt charm hadrons are reported for the first time, and are found to be comparable to those for light-flavor hadron species over a transverse momentum (pT) range of 2–6 GeV. Compared at similar event multiplicities, the prompt D0 meson v2 values in pp and pPb collisions are similar in magnitude. The v2 values for open beauty hadrons are extracted for the first time via nonprompt D0 mesons in pPb collisions. For pT in the range of 2–5 GeV, the results suggest that v2 for nonprompt D0 mesons is smaller than that for prompt D0 mesons. These new measurements indicate a positive charm hadron v2 in pp collisions and suggest a mass dependence in v2 between charm and beauty hadrons in the pPb system. These results provide insights into the origin of heavy-flavor quark collectivity in small systems. Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie program and the European Research Council and Horizon 2020 Grant, contract Nos. 675440, 752730, and 765710 (European Union); CERN; the Programa Estatal de Fomento de la Investigación Científica y Técnica de Excelencia María de Maeztu, grant MDM-2015-0509 and the Programa Severo Ochoa del Principado de Asturias. CMS Collaboration: et al. Funded by SCOAP3. Peer reviewed

Genetically encodable fluorescent proteins have revolutionized biological imaging in vivo and in vitro. Since there are no other natural fluorescent tags with comparable features, the impact of fluorescent proteins for biological research cannot be overemphasized. Despite their importance, their photophysical properties, i.e., brightness, count-rate and photostability, are relatively poor compared to synthetic organic fluorophores or quantum dots. Intramolecular photostabilizers were recently rediscovered as an effective approach to improve photophysical properties. The approach uses direct conjugation of photostablizing compounds such as triplet-state quenchers or redox-active substances to an organic fluorophore, thereby creating high local concentrations of photostabilizer. Here, we introduce an experimental strategy to screen for the effects of covalently-linked photostabilizers on fluorescent proteins. We recombinantly produced a double cysteine mutant (A206C/L221C) of α-GFP for attachment of photostabilizer-maleimides on the ß-barrel in close proximity to the chromophore. Whereas labelling with photostabilizers such as Trolox, Nitrophenyl, and Cyclooctatetraene, which are often used for organic fluorophores, had no effect on α-GFP-photostability, a substantial increase of photostability was found upon conjugation of α-GFP to an azobenzene derivative. Although the mechanism of the photostabilizing effects remains to be elucidated, we speculate that the higher triplet-energy of azobenzene might be crucial for triplet-quenching of fluorophores in the near-UV and blue spectral range. Our study paves the way towards the development and design of a second generation of fluorescent proteins with photostabilizers placed directly in the protein barrel by methods such as unnatural amino acid incorporation.

A search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a W or a Z boson and decaying to a pair of τ leptons is performed. A data sample of proton-proton collisions collected at s = 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. The signal strength is measured relative to the expectation for the standard model Higgs boson, yielding μ = 2.5− 1.3+ 1.4. These results are combined with earlier CMS measurements targeting Higgs boson decays to a pair of τ leptons, performed with the same data set in the gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production modes. The combined signal strength is μ = 1.24− 0.27+ 0.29 (1.00− 0.23+ 0.24 expected), and the observed significance is 5.5 standard deviations (4.8 expected) for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV.[Figure not available: see fulltext.] info:eu-repo/semantics/published 0