Measurement of electroweak Z(νν⁻)γjj production and limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The electroweak production of Z(νν¯) γ in association with two jets is studied in a regime with a photon of high transverse momentum above 150 GeV using proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 collected by the ATLAS detector during the 2015–2018 LHC data-taking period. This process is an important probe of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism in the Standard Model and is sensitive to quartic gauge boson couplings via vector-boson scattering. The fiducial Z(νν¯) γjj cross section for electroweak production is measured to be 0.77−0.30+0.34 fb and is consistent with the Standard Model prediction. Evidence of electroweak Z(νν¯) γjj production is found with an observed significance of 3.2σ for the background-only hypothesis, compared with an expected significance of 3.7σ. The combination of this result with the previously published ATLAS observation of electroweak Z(νν¯) γjj production yields an observed (expected) signal significance of 6.3σ (6.6σ). Limits on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings are obtained in the framework of effective field theory with dimension-8 operators

Measurement of the cross-section of high transverse momentum vector bosons reconstructed as single jets and studies of jet substructure in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper presents a measurement of the cross-section for high transverse momentum W and Z bosons produced in pp collisions and decaying to all-hadronic final states. The data used in the analysis were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=7\;{\rm Te}{\rm V}$ and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $4.6\;{\rm f}{{{\rm b}}^{-1}}$. The measurement is performed by reconstructing the boosted W or Z bosons in single jets. The reconstructed jet mass is used to identify the W and Z bosons, and a jet substructure method based on energy cluster information in the jet centre-of-mass frame is used to suppress the large multi-jet background. The cross-section for events with a hadronically decaying W or Z boson, with transverse momentum ${{p}_{{\rm T}}}\gt 320\;{\rm Ge}{\rm V}$ and pseudorapidity $|\eta |\lt 1.9$, is measured to be ${{\sigma }_{W+Z}}=8.5\pm 1.7$ pb and is compared to next-to-leading-order calculations. The selected events are further used to study jet grooming techniques.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract A search for neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were recorded in 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb−1 to 4.8 fb−1. Higgs boson decays into oppositely-charged muon or τ lepton pairs are considered for final states requiring either the presence or absence of b-jets. No statistically significant excess over the expected background is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived. The exclusion limits are for the production cross-section of a generic neutral Higgs boson, ϕ, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for h/A/H production in the MSSM as a function of the parameters m A and tan β in the $m_h^{\max }$ scenario for m A in the range of 90 GeV to 500 GeV.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni … M.J. White … et al. [The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for pair and single production of new heavy quarks that decay to a Z boson and a third-generation quark in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for the production of new heavy quarks that decay to a Z boson and a third-generation Standard Model quark. In the case of a new charge +2/3 quark (T ), the decay targeted is T -> Zt, while the decay targeted for a new charge -1/3 quark (B) is B -> Zb. The search is performed with a dataset corresponding to 20.3 fb -1 of pp collisions at s root=8 TeV recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Selected events contain a high transverse momentum Z boson candidate reconstructed from a pair of oppositely charged same-flavor leptons (electrons or muons), and are analyzed in two channels defined by the absence or presence of a third lepton. Hadronic jets, in particular those with properties consistent with the decay of a b-hadron, are also required to be present in selected events. Different requirements are made on the jet activity in the event in order to enhance the sensitivity to either heavy quark pair production mediated by the strong interaction, or single production mediated by the electroweak interaction. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and lower limits are derived on the mass of vector-like T and B quarks under various branching ratio hypotheses, as well as upper limits on the magnitude of electroweak coupling parameters.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for strong production of supersymmetric particles in final states with missing transverse momentum and at least three b -jets at s root=8 TeV proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports the results of a search for strong production of supersymmetric particles in 20.1 fb -1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search is performed separately in events with either zero or at least one high-p T lepton (electron or muon), large missing transverse momentum, high jet multiplicity and at least three jets identified as originated from the fragmentation of a b-quark. No excess is observed with respect to the Standard Model predictions. The results are interpreted in the context of several supersymmetric models involving gluinos and scalar top and bottom quarks, as well as a mSUGRA/CMSSM model. Gluino masses up to 1340 GeV are excluded, depending on the model, significantly extending the previous ATLAS limits.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ...A. Petridis ... M.J. White ... et al. [The ATLAS Collaboration

A study of the material in the ATLAS inner detector using secondary hadronic interactions

The ATLAS inner detector is used to reconstruct secondary vertices due to hadronic interactions of primary collision products, so probing the location and amount of material in the inner region of ATLAS. Data collected in 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC, with a minimum bias trigger, are used for comparisons with simulated events. The reconstructed secondary vertices have spatial resolutions ranging from ~ 200μm to 1 mm. The overall material description in the simulation is validated to within an experimental uncertainty of about 7%. This will lead to a better understanding of the reconstruction of various objects such as tracks, leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum.G.Aad ... P.Jackson ... L.Lee ... A.Petridis ... N.Soni ... M.J.White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Measurement of the cross-section for W boson production in association with b-jets in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of the W +b-jets (W +b+ X and W +bb¯¯+X) production cross-section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC. These results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb−1, collected with the ATLAS detector. Cross-sections are presented as a function of jet multiplicity and of the transverse momentum of the leading b-jet for both the muon and electron decay modes of the W boson. The W +b-jets cross-section, corrected for all known detector effects, is quoted in a limited kinematic range. Combining the muon and electron channels, the fiducial cross-section for W +b-jets is measured to be 7.1 ± 0.5 (stat) ± 1.4 (syst) pb, consistent with the next-to-leading order QCD prediction, corrected for non-perturbative and double-parton interactions (DPI) contributions, of 4.70 ± 0.09 (stat) +0.60−0.49 (scale) ±0.06 (PDF) ±0.16 (non-pert) +0.52−0.38 (DPI) pbG. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni … M.J. White … et al. [ATLAS Collaboration

Search for a new scalar resonance in flavour-changing neutral-current top-quark decays t → qX (q = u, c), with X → bb¯, in proton-proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for flavour-changing neutral-current decays of a top quark into an up-type quark (either up or charm) and a light scalar particle X decaying into a bottom anti-bottom quark pair is presented. The search focuses on top-quark pair production where one top quark decays to qX, with X → bb¯, and the other top quark decays according to the Standard Model, with the W boson decaying leptonically. The final state is thus characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. Events are categorised according to the multiplicity of jets and jets tagged as originating from b-quarks, and a neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background processes. The data analysed correspond to 139 fb⁻¹ of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.019% and 0.062% are derived for the branching fraction B (t → uX) and between 0.018% and 0.078% for the branching fraction B (t → cX), for masses of the scalar particle X between 20 and 160 GeV