The observation of the production of four top quarks in proton-proton collisions is reported, based on a data sample collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016-2018 at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with two same-sign, three, or four charged leptons (electrons and muons) and additional jets are analyzed. Compared to previous results in these channels, updated identification techniques for charged leptons and jets originating from the hadronization of b quarks, as well as a revised multivariate analysis strategy to distinguish the signal process from the main backgrounds, lead to an improved expected signal significance of 4.9 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. Four top quark production is observed with a significance of 5.6 standard deviations, and its cross section is measured to be 17.7 $^{+3.7}_{-3.5}$ (stat) $^{+2.3}_{-1.9}$ (syst) fb, in agreement with the available standard model predictions.

The J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-$ decay has been observed with a statistical significance in excess of five standard deviations. The analysis is based on an event sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 33.6 fb${-1}$. Normalizing to the J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ decay mode leads to a branching fraction [10.1$^{+3.3}_{-2.7}$ (stat) $\pm$ 0.4 (syst) ]$\times$ 10$^{-7}$, a value that is consistent with the standard model prediction.

A search for dark matter in events with a displaced nonresonant muon pair and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton (pp) collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV produced by the LHC in 2016-2018. No significant excess over the predicted backgrounds is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the inelastic dark matter production cross section $\sigma$(pp $\to$ A' $\to$$\chi_1$$\chi_2$) and the decay branching fraction $\mathcal{B}$($\chi_2$$\to$$\chi_1 \mu^+ \mu^-$), where A' is a dark photon and $\chi_1$ and $\chi_2$ are states in the dark sector with near mass degeneracy. This is the first dedicated collider search for inelastic dark matter.

A search is described for the production of a pair of bottom-type vector-like quarks (B VLQs) with mass greater than 1000 GeV. Each B VLQ decays into a b quark and a Higgs boson, a b quark and a Z boson, or a t quark and a W boson. This analysis considers both fully hadronic final states and those containing a charged lepton pair from a Z boson decay. The products of the H $to$ bb boson decay and of the hadronic Z or W boson decays can be resolved as two distinct jets or merged into a single jet, so the final states are classified by the number of reconstructed jets. The analysis uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC from 2016 to 2018. No excess over the expected background is observed. Lower limits are set on the B VLQ mass at 95% confidence level. These depend on the B VLQ branching fractions and are 1570 and 1540 GeV for 100% B $\to$ bH and 100% B $\to$ bZ, respectively. In most cases, the mass limits obtained exceed previous limits by at least 100 GeV.

A search is presented for a third-generation leptoquark (LQ) coupled exclusively to a $\tau$ lepton and a b quark. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with $\tau$ leptons and a varying number of jets originating from b quarks are considered, targeting the single and pair production of LQs, as well as nonresonant $t$-channel LQ exchange. An excess is observed in the data with respect to the background expectation in the combined analysis of all search regions. For a benchmark LQ mass of 2 TeV and an LQ-b-$\tau$ coupling strength of 2.5, the excess reaches a local significance of up to 2.8 standard deviations. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the LQ production cross section in the LQ mass range 0.5-2.3 TeV, and up to 3 TeV for $t$-channel LQ exchange. Leptoquarks are excluded below masses of 1.22-1.88 TeV for different LQ models and varying coupling strengths up to 2.5. The study of nonresonant $\tau\tau$ production through $t$-channel LQ exchange allows lower limits on the LQ mass of up to 2.3 TeV to be obtained.

A measurement of the W$^+$W$^-$ boson pair production cross section in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV is presented. The data used in this study are collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The W$^+$W$^-$ candidate events are selected by requiring two oppositely charged leptons (electrons or muons). Two methods for reducing background contributions are employed. In the first one, a sequence of requirements on kinematic quantities is applied allowing a measurement of the total production cross section: 117.6 $\pm$ 6.8 pb, which agrees well with the theoretical prediction. Fiducial cross sections are also reported for events with zero or one jet, and the change in the zero-jet fiducial cross section with the jet transverse momentum threshold is measured. Normalized differential cross sections are reported within the fiducial region. A second method for suppressing background contributions employs two random forest classifiers. The analysis based on this method includes a measurement of the total production cross section and also a measurement of the normalized jet multiplicity distribution in W$^+$W$^-$ events. Finally, a dilepton invariant mass distribution is used to probe for physics beyond the standard model in the context of an effective field theory, and constraints on the presence of dimension-6 operators are derived.

The WZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV is measured with the CMS experiment at the LHC using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.3 inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed in the leptonic decay modes WZ to l nu l' l', where l, l'= e, mu. The measured cross section for the range 60 < m[l'l'] < 120 GeV is sigma(pp to WZ) = 39.9 +/- 3.2 (stat) +2.9/-3.1 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 1.3 (lumi) pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.

Protons consist of three valence quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, held together by gluons and a sea of quark-antiquark pairs. Collectively, quarks and gluons are referred to as partons. In a proton-proton collision, typically only one parton of each proton undergoes a hard scattering - referred to as single-parton scattering - leaving the remainder of each proton only slightly disturbed. Here, we report the study of double- and triple-parton scatterings through the simultaneous production of three J/$\psi$ mesons, which consist of a charm quark-antiquark pair, in proton-proton collisions recorded with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. We observed this process - reconstructed through the decays of J/$\psi$ mesons into pairs of oppositely charged muons - with a statistical significance above five standard deviations. We measured the inclusive fiducial cross section to be 272 $^{+141}_{-104}$ (stat) $\pm$ 17 (syst) fb, and compared it to theoretical expectations for triple-J/$\psi$ meson production in single-, double- and triple-parton scattering scenarios. Assuming factorization of multiple hard-scattering probabilities in terms of single-parton scattering cross sections, double- and triple-parton scattering are the dominant contributions for the measured process.

The first collider search for dark matter arising from a strongly coupled hidden sector is presented and uses a data sample corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The hidden sector is hypothesized to couple to the standard model (SM) via a heavy leptophobic Z' mediator produced as a resonance in proton-proton collisions. The mediator decay results in two "semivisible" jets, containing both visible matter and invisible dark matter. The final state therefore includes moderate missing energy aligned with one of the jets, a signature ignored by most dark matter searches. No structure in the dijet transverse mass spectra compatible with the signal is observed. Assuming the Z' has a universal coupling of 0.25 to the SM quarks, an inclusive search, relevant to any model that exhibits this kinematic behavior, excludes mediator masses of 1.5-4.0 TeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the other signal model parameters. To enhance the sensitivity of the search for this particular class of hidden sector models, a boosted decision tree (BDT) is trained using jet substructure variables to distinguish between semivisible jets and SM jets from background processes. When the BDT is employed to identify each jet in the dijet system as semivisible, the mediator mass exclusion increases to 5.1 TeV, for wider ranges of the other signal model parameters. These limits exclude a wide range of strongly coupled hidden sector models for the first time.

A search is reported for pairs of light Higgs bosons (H$_1$) produced in supersymmetric cascade decays in final states with small missing transverse momentum. A data set of LHC pp collisions collected with the CMS detector at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ is used. The search targets events where both H$_1$ bosons decay into $\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ pairs that are reconstructed as large-radius jets using substructure techniques. No evidence is found for an excess of events beyond the background expectations of the standard model (SM). Results from the search are interpreted in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM, where a "singlino" of small mass leads to squark and gluino cascade decays that can predominantly end in a highly Lorentz-boosted singlet-like H$_1$ and a singlino-like neutralino of small transverse momentum. Upper limits are set on the product of the squark or gluino pair production cross section and the square of the $\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ branching fraction of the H$_1$ in a benchmark model containing almost mass-degenerate gluinos and light-flavour squarks. Under the assumption of an SM-like H$_1$$\to$$\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ branching fraction, H$_1$ bosons with masses in the range 40-120 GeV arising from the decays of squarks or gluinos with a mass of 1200 to 2500 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.