This paper presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new pseudoscalar particles, 𝐻→𝑎𝑎, where one pseudoscalar decays into a 𝑏-quark pair and the other decays into a 𝜏-lepton pair, in the mass range 12 ≤𝑚𝑎 ≤60 GeV. The analysis uses 𝑝𝑝 collision data at √𝑠 =13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model (SM) prediction is observed. Assuming the SM Higgs boson production cross section, the search sets upper limits at 95% confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decaying into 𝑏¯𝑏𝜏+𝜏−, ℬ(𝐻 →𝑎𝑎 →𝑏¯𝑏𝜏+𝜏−), between 2.2% and 3.9% depending on the pseudoscalar mass.
QC 20250214