Search for heavy lepton resonances decaying to a Z boson and a lepton in pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy leptons decaying to a Z boson and an electron or a muon is presented. The search is based on pp collision data taken at √s = 8 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb⁻¹. Three high-transverse-momentum electrons or muons are selected, with two of them required to be consistent with originating from a Z boson decay. No significant excess above Standard Model background predictions is observed, and 95% confidence level limits on the production cross section of high-mass trilepton resonances are derived. The results are interpreted in the context of vector-like lepton and type-III seesaw models. For the vector-like lepton model, most heavy lepton mass values in the range 114–176 GeV are excluded. For the type-III seesaw model, most mass values in the range 100–468 GeV are excluded.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for Higgs boson decays to invisible particles is performed using 20.3 fb−1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The process considered is Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson (V = W or Z) that decays hadronically, resulting in events with two or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No excess of candidates is observed in the data over the background expectation. The results are used to constrain V H production followed by H decaying to invisible particles for the Higgs boson mass range 115 < mH < 300 GeV. The 95%confidence-level observed upper limit on σV H × BR(H → inv.) varies from 1.6 pb at 115 GeV to 0.13 pb at 300 GeV. Assuming Standard Model production and including the gg → H contribution as signal, the results also lead to an observed upper limit of 78%at 95%confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decays to invisible particles at a mass of 125 GeV.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for new phenomena in dijet angular distributions in proton-proton collisions at root s =8 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector

A search for new phenomena in LHC proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=8 TeV was performed with the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 17.3 fb^{-1}. The angular distributions are studied in events with at least two jets; the highest dijet mass observed is 5.5 TeV. All angular distributions are consistent with the predictions of the standard model. In a benchmark model of quark contact interactions, a compositeness scale below 8.1 TeV in a destructive interference scenario and 12.0 TeV in a constructive interference scenario is excluded at 95% C.L.; median expected limits are 8.9 TeV for the destructive interference scenario and 14.1 TeV for the constructive interference scenario.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Measurements of the nuclear modification factor for jets in Pb+Pb collisions at root sNN =2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of inclusive jet production are performed in pp and Pb+Pb collisions at √(s)NN=2.76  TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 4.0 and 0.14  nb(-1), respectively. The jets are identified with the anti-k(t) algorithm with R=0.4, and the spectra are measured over the kinematic range of jet transverse momentum 32<p(T)<500  GeV and absolute rapidity |y|<2.1 and as a function of collision centrality. The nuclear modification factor R(AA) is evaluated, and jets are found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of 2 in central collisions compared to pp collisions. The R(AA) shows a slight increase with p(T) and no significant variation with rapidity.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for squarks and gluinos in events with isolated leptons, jets and missing transverse momentum at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a search for supersymmetry in final states containing at least one isolated lepton (electron or muon), jets and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy s√=8 TeV collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. Limits are set on supersymmetric particle masses for various supersymmetric models. Depending on the model, the search excludes gluino masses up to 1.32 TeV and squark masses up to 840 GeV. Limits are also set on the parameters of a minimal universal extra dimension model, excluding a compactification radius of 1/Rc = 950 GeV for a cut-off scale times radius (ΛRc) of approximately 30.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for the standard model higgs boson produced in association with top quarks and decaying into bb in pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, t ¯tH, is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb−1 √ of pp collision data at s = 8 TeV, collected with theATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2012. The search is designed for the H → b¯b decay mode and uses events containing one or two electrons or muons. In order to improve the sensitivity of the search, events are categorised according to their jet and b-tagged jet multiplicities. A neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by t ¯t+jets production. In the single-lepton channel, variables calculated using a matrix element method are included as inputs to the neural network to improve discrimination of the irreducible t ¯t+b¯b background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) limit of 3.4 (2.2) times the StandardModel cross section is obtained at 95% confidence level. The ratio of the measured t ¯tH signal cross section to the StandardModel expectation is found to be μ = 1.5±1.1 assuming a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV .G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Measurement of differential J/psi production cross sections and forward-backward ratios in p + Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of differential cross sections for J/ψ production in p + Pb collisions at √sNN = 5.02 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector are presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 28.1 nb⁻¹. The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon decay channel over the transverse momentum range 8 < pT < 30 GeV and over the center-of-mass rapidity range −2.87 < y ∗ < 1.94. Prompt J/ψ are separated from J/ψ resulting from b-hadron decays through an analysis of the distance between the J/ψ decay vertex and the event primary vertex. The differential cross section for production of nonprompt J/ψ is compared to a FONLL calculation that does not include nuclear effects. Forward-backward production ratios are presented and compared to theoretical predictions. These results complement previously published results by covering a region of higher transverse momentum and more central rapidity. They thus constrain the kinematic dependence of nuclear modifications of charmonium and b-quark production in p + Pb collisions.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for scalar charm quark pair production in pp collisions at root s =8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The results of a dedicated search for pair production of scalar partners of charm quarks are reported. The search is based on an integrated luminosity of 20.3  fb^{-1} of pp collisions at sqrt[s]=8  TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search is performed using events with large missing transverse momentum and at least two jets, where the two leading jets are each tagged as originating from c quarks. Events containing isolated electrons or muons are vetoed. In an R-parity-conserving minimal supersymmetric scenario in which a single scalar-charm state is kinematically accessible, and where it decays exclusively into a charm quark and a neutralino, 95% confidence-level upper limits are obtained in the scalar-charm-neutralino mass plane such that, for neutralino masses below 200 GeV, scalar-charm masses up to 490 GeV are excluded.G. Aad … P. Jackson … L. Lee … A. Petridis … N. Soni ... M. White ... et al. (The ATLAS Collaboration

Centrality and rapidity dependence of inclusive jet production in root sNN=5.02 TeV proton-lead collisions with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of the centrality and rapidity dependence of inclusive jet production in √sNN = 5.02 TeV proton–lead (p+Pb) collisions and the jet cross-section √s = 2.76 TeV proton–proton collisions are presented. These quantities are measured in datasets corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.8 nb⁻¹and 4.0 pb⁻¹, respectively, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2013. The p+Pb collision centrality was characterised using the total transverse energy measured in the pseudorapidity interval −4.9<η<−3.2 in the direction of the lead beam. Results are presented for the double-differential per-collision yields as a function of jet rapidity and transverse momentum (pT) for minimum-bias and centrality-selected p+Pb collisions, and are compared to the jet rate from the geometric expectation. The total jet yield in minimum-bias events is slightly enhanced above the expectation in a pT-dependent manner but is consistent with the expectation within uncertainties. The ratios of jet spectra from different centrality selections show a strong modification of jet production at all pT at forward rapidities and for large pTpT at mid-rapidity, which manifests as a suppression of the jet yield in central events and an enhancement in peripheral events. These effects imply that the factorisation between hard and soft processes is violated at an unexpected level in proton–nucleus collisions. Furthermore, the modifications at forward rapidities are found to be a function of the total jet energy only, implying that the violations may have a simple dependence on the hard parton–parton kinematics.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... L. Lee ... A. Petridis ... N. Soni ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for resonances in the mass distribution of jet pairs with one or two jets identified as b-jets in proton–proton collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

© 2016 The AuthorSearches for high-mass resonances in the dijet invariant mass spectrum with one or two jets identified as b-jets are performed using an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of s=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of anomalous phenomena is observed in the data, which are used to exclude, at 95% credibility level, excited b⁎ quarks with masses from 1.1 TeV to 2.1 TeV and leptophobic Z′ bosons with masses from 1.1 TeV to 1.5 TeV. Contributions of a Gaussian signal shape with effective cross sections ranging from approximately 0.4 to 0.001 pb are also excluded in the mass range 1.5–5.0 TeV