Measurements of Higgs boson production, where the Higgs boson decays into a pair of $$\uptau $$τ leptons, are presented, using a sample of proton-proton collisions collected with the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of "Equation missing", corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$fb - 1 . Three analyses are presented. Two are targeting Higgs boson production via gluon fusion and vector boson fusion: a neural network based analysis and an analysis based on an event categorization optimized on the ratio of signal over background events. These are complemented by an analysis targeting vector boson associated Higgs boson production. Results are presented in the form of signal strengths relative to the standard model predictions and products of cross sections and branching fraction to $$\uptau $$τ leptons, in up to 16 different kinematic regions. For the simultaneous measurements of the neural network based analysis and the analysis targeting vector boson associated Higgs boson production signal strengths are found to be $$0.82\pm 0.11$$0.82 ± 0.11 for inclusive Higgs boson production, $$0.67\pm 0.19$$0.67 ± 0.19 ( $$0.81\pm 0.17$$0.81 ± 0.17 ) for the production mainly via gluon fusion (vector boson fusion), and $$1.79\pm 0.45$$1.79 ± 0.45 for vector boson associated Higgs boson production.

A search for the direct production of a pair of $\tau$ sleptons, the supersymmetric partners of $\tau$ leptons, is presented. Each $\tau$ slepton is assumed to decay to a $\tau$ lepton and the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), which is assumed to be stable and to not interact in the detector, leading to an imbalance in the total reconstructed transverse momentum. The search is carried out in events identified as containing two $\tau$ leptons, each decaying to one or more hadrons and a neutrino, and significant transverse momentum imbalance. In addition to scenarios in which the $\tau$ sleptons decay promptly, the search also addresses scenarios in which the $\tau$ sleptons have sufficiently long lifetimes to give rise to nonprompt $\tau$ leptons. The data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $13\mathrm{TeV}$ at the CERN LHC with the CMS detector in 2016–2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $138{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. No significant excess is seen with respect to standard model expectations. Upper limits on cross sections for the pair production of $\tau$ sleptons are obtained in the framework of simplified models. In a scenario in which the $\tau$ sleptons are superpartners of left-handed $\tau$ leptons, and each undergoes a prompt decay to a $\tau$ lepton and a nearly massless LSP, $\tau$ slepton masses between 115 and 340 GeV are excluded. In a scenario in which the lifetime of the $\tau$ sleptons corresponds to $c{\tau }_0=0.1\mathrm{mm}$, where ${\tau }_0$ represents the mean proper lifetime of the $\tau$ slepton, masses between 150 and 220 GeV are excluded.

A study of anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson to vector bosons and fermions is presented. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of pp collisions at the LHC of 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $138{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The study uses Higgs boson candidates produced mainly in gluon fusion or electroweak vector boson fusion at the LHC that subsequently decay to a pair of $\tau$ leptons. Matrix-element and machine-learning techniques were employed in a search for anomalous interactions. The results are combined with those from the four-lepton and two-photon decay channels to yield the most stringent constraints on anomalous Higgs boson couplings to date. The pure $CP$-odd scenario of the Higgs boson coupling to gluons is excluded at 2.4 standard deviations. The results are consistent with the standard model predictions.