Search for dark matter and other new phenomena in events with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fbâ1at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are required to have at least one jet with a transverse momentum above 250 GeV and no leptons (e or μ). Several signal regions are considered with increasing requirements on the missing transverse momentum above 250 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model predictions. The results are translated into exclusion limits in models with pair-produced weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, large extra spatial dimensions, and supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in the four-lepton channel in pp collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The final ATLAS Run 1 measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in the decay channel H → ZZ∗ → l+l-l'+l'-, where l, l' = e or μ, are presented. These measurements were performed using pp collision data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 4.5 and 20.3 fb-1 at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, respectively, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The H → ZZ∗ → 4l signal is observed with a significance of 8.1 standard deviations, with an expectation of 6.2 standard deviations, at mH = 125.36 GeV, the combined ATLAS measurement of the Higgs boson mass from the H → γγ and H → ZZ∗ → 4l channels. The production rate relative to the Standard Model expectation, the signal strength, is measured in four different production categories in the H → ZZ∗ → 4l channel. The measured signal strength, at this mass, and with all categories combined, is 1.44+0.40-0.33. The signal strength for Higgs boson production in gluon fusion or in association with tt or bb pairs is found to be 1.7+0.5-0.4, while the signal strength for vector-boson fusion combined with WH/ZH associated production is found to be 0.3+1.6-0.9

Neutralino spin measurement with ATLAS detector at LHC

Minimal Supergravity (mSUGRA) [1] Supersimmetry breaking mechanism is a leading candidate for yielding new physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). Within mSUGRA framework masses, mixings and decays of all SUSY and Higgs particles are determined in terms of four input parameters and a sign: the common mass m 0 of scalar particles at the grand unification scale, the common fermion mass m 1/2, the common trilinear coupling A 0, the ratio of the Higgs vacuum expectation values tan β and the sign of the supersymmetric Higgs mass parameter μ. Once a signal of a physics beyond the Standard Model is seen at LHC, it will be fundamental to measure properties of new particles, like spin, in order to prove that they are indeed supersymmetric partners. The present work [2] is based on the spin analysis method proposed in [3] and allows the discrimination of different hypotheses for spin assignments. Some studies [4, 5] show that this method can also be used for the discrimination of SUSY from an Universal Extra Dimensions model which can mimick low energy SUSY at hadron colliders. In this report two selected points inside stau-coannihilation and bulk regions of the allowed mSUGRA parameter space are considered. Fast simulation [6] of the ATLAS detector was performed in order to investigate the feasibility of supersymmetric particles’ spin measurement

Study of second lightest neutralino spin measurement with ATLAS detector at LHC

One of the goals of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider is to search for evidence of Supersymmetry (SUSY) signals. If SUSY would be discovered, it will be fundamental to measure the spin of the new particles in order to prove that they are indeed supersymmetric partners. Left-handed squark cascade decay to second lightest neutralino which further decays to slepton can represent a good opportunity for SUSY particles' spin measurement. Assuming the neutralino spin to be 1/2, the invariant mass distributions of some detectable final products of the reactions have to be charge asymmetric. In the present work the detectability of this charge asymmetry is analysed in the stau-coannihilation region and in the bulk region of the minimal Supergravity parameter space allowed by the latest experimental constraints. The criteria used to isolate the decay chain of interest and to reject the background, coming from both Standard Model and different SUSY decay channels, are described as obtained by suitable optimizations on Monte Carlo samples produced with the ATLAS fast simulation. The estimates of the residual contributions to background and of the applied cut efficiencies are presented. Results on charge asymmetry are then shown and discussed

Ageing test of the ATLAS RPCs at X5-GIF

An ageing test of three ATLAS production RPC stations is in course at X5-GIF, the CERN irradiation facility. The chamber efficiencies are monitored using cosmic rays triggered by a scintillator hodoscope. Higher statistics measurements are made when the X5 muon beam is available. We report here the measurements of the efficiency versus operating voltage at different source intensities, up to a maximum counting rate of about 700Hz/cm^2. We describe the performance of the chambers during the test up to an overall ageing of 4 ATLAS equivalent years corresponding to an integrated charge of 0.12C/cm^2, including a safety factor of 5.Comment: 4 pages. Presented at the VII Workshop on Resistive Plate Chambers and Related Detectors; Clermont-Ferrand October 20th-22nd, 200

The Muon Spectrometer Barrel Level-1 Trigger of the ATLAS Experiment at LHC

The proton-proton beam crossing at the LHC accelerator at CERN will have a rate of 40 MHz at the project luminosity. The ATLAS Trigger System has been designed in three levels in order to select only interesting physics events reducing from that rate of 40 MHz to the foreseen storage rate of about 200 Hz. The First Level reduces the output rate to about 100 kHz. The ATLAS Muon Spectrometer has been designed to perform stand-alone triggering and measurement of muon transverse momentum up to 1 TeV/c with good resolution (from 3% at 10 GeV/c up to 10% at 1 TeV/c). In the Barrel region of the Muon Spectrometer the Level-1 trigger is given by means of three layers of Resistive Plate Chamber detectors (RPC): a gaseous detector working in avalanche mode composed by two plates of high-resistivity bakelite and two orthogonal planes of read-out strips. The logic of the Level-1 barrel muon trigger is based on the search of patterns of RPC hits in the three layers consistent with a high transverse momentum muon track originated from the interaction vertex. The associated trigger electronics is based on dedicated processors, the Coincidence Matrix boards, performing space coincidences and time gates and providing the RPC readout as well. A detailed simulation of the ATLAS Experiment and of both the hardware components and the logic of the Level-1 Muon Trigger in the barrel of the Muon Spectrometer has been performed. This simulation has been used not only to evaluate the performances of the system but also to define the hardware set-up such as the cabling of both the trigger detectors and the trigger electronics modules. A description of both the Level-1 Muon Trigger system in the barrel and the RPC detectors, with their cosmic rays quality tests, will be presented together with the trigger performances and rates calculations evaluated for muons over a wide range of pT and preliminary studies on the impact of accidental triggers due to low energy background particles in the experimental area

Constraints on the Higgs boson self-coupling from single- and double-Higgs production with the ATLAS detector using pp collisions at s=13 TeV

Constraints on the Higgs boson self-coupling are set by combining double-Higgs boson analyses in the b ̄bb ̄b, b ̄bτ+τ− and b ̄bγγ decay channels with single-Higgs boson analyses targeting the γγ, ZZ∗, WW∗, τ+τ− and b ̄b decay channels. The data used in these analyses were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 126–139 fb−1. The combination of the double-Higgs analyses sets an upper limit of μHH < 2.4 at 95% confidence level on the double-Higgs production cross-section normalised to its Standard Model prediction. Combining the single-Higgs and double-Higgs analyses, with the assumption that new physics affects only the Higgs boson self-coupling (λHHH), values outside the interval −0.4 <κλ = (λHHH/λSM HHH) < 6.3 are excluded at 95% confidence level. The combined single-Higgs and double-Higgs analyses provide results with fewer assumptions, by adding in the fit more coupling modifiers introduced to account for the Higgs boson interactions with the other Standard Model particles. In this relaxed scenario, the constraint becomes −1.4 < κλ < 6.1 at 95% CL

Search for dark matter in association with an energetic photon in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for dark matter is conducted in final states containing a photon and √s = 13 TeV. The data, collected during 2015–2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. No deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model are observed and 95% confidence-level upper limits between 2.45fb and 0.5fb are set on the visible cross section for contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model, in different ranges of the missing transverse momentum. The results are interpreted as 95% confidence-level limits in models where weakly interacting dark-matter candidates are pair-produced via an s-channel axial-vector or vector mediator. Dark-matter candidates with masses up to 415 (580) GeV are excluded for axial-vector (vector) mediators, while the maximum excluded mass of the mediator is 1460 (1470) GeV. In addition, the results are expressed in terms of 95% confidence-level limits on the parameters of a model with an axion-like particle produced in association with a photon, and are used to constrain the coupling gaZγ of an axion-like particle to the electroweak gauge bosons

Search for dark matter produced in association with a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into b-quarks using the full Run 2 dataset from the ATLAS detector

The production of dark matter in association with Higgs bosons is predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model. An exploration of such scenarios is presented, considering final states with missing transverse momentum and b-tagged jets consistent with a Higgs boson. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass en- ergy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during Run 2, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. The analysis, when compared with previous searches, benefits from a larger dataset, but also has further improvements providing sensitivity to a wider spectrum of signal scenarios. These improvements include both an optimised event selection and advances in the object identification, such as the use of the likelihood-based significance of the missing transverse momentum and variable-radius track-jets. No sig- nificant deviation from Standard Model expectations is observed. Limits are set, at 95% confidence level, in two benchmark models with two Higgs doublets extended by either a heavy vector boson Z′ or a pseudoscalar singlet a and which both provide a dark matter candidate χ. In the case of the two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional vector boson Z′, the observed limits extend up to a Z′ mass of 3TeV for a mass of 100GeV for the dark matter candidate. The two-Higgs-doublet model with a dark matter particle mass of 10 GeV and an additional pseudoscalar a is excluded for masses of the a up to 520 GeV and 240 GeV for tan β = 1 and tan β = 10 respectively. Limits on the visible cross-sections are set and range from to 0.05fb to 3.26fb, depending on the missing transverse momentum and b-quark jet multiplicity requirements