Operation and performance of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter in Run 1

The Tile Calorimeter is the hadron calorimeter covering the central region of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Approximately 10,000 photomultipliers collect light from scintillating tiles acting as the active material sandwiched between slabs of steel absorber. This paper gives an overview of the calorimeter’s performance during the years 2008–2012 using cosmic-ray muon events and proton–proton collision data at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV with a total integrated luminosity of nearly 30 fb−1. The signal reconstruction methods, calibration systems as well as the detector operation status are presented. The energy and time calibration methods performed excellently, resulting in good stability of the calorimeter response under varying conditions during the LHC Run 1. Finally, the Tile Calorimeter response to isolated muons and hadrons as well as to jets from proton–proton collisions is presented. The results demonstrate excellent performance in accord with specifications mentioned in the Technical Design Report

Search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with b-quarks and decaying into b-quarks at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy neutral Higgs bosons produced in association with one or two b -quarks and decaying to b -quark pairs is presented using 27.8  fb − 1 of √ s = 13  TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2015 and 2016. No evidence of a signal is found. Upper limits on the heavy neutral Higgs boson production cross section times its branching ratio to b ¯ b are set, ranging from 4.0 to 0.6 pb at 95% confidence level over a Higgs boson mass range of 450 to 1400 GeV. Results are interpreted within the two-Higgs-doublet model and the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model

Search for excited electrons singly produced in proton–proton collisions at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with the ALAS experiment at the LHC

A search for excited electrons produced in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV via a contact interaction qq¯→ee∗ is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb −1 of data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Decays of the excited electron into an electron and a pair of quarks ( eqq¯ ) are targeted in final states with two electrons and two hadronic jets, and decays via a gauge interaction into a neutrino and a W boson ( νW ) are probed in final states with an electron, missing transverse momentum, and a large-radius jet consistent with a hadronically decaying W boson. No significant excess is observed over the expected backgrounds. Upper limits are calculated for the pp→ee∗→eeqq¯ and pp→ee∗→eνW production cross sections as a function of the excited electron mass me∗ at 95% confidence level. The limits are translated into lower bounds on the compositeness scale parameter Λ of the model as a function of me∗ . For me∗<0.5 TeV , the lower bound for Λ is 11 TeV . In the special case of me∗=Λ , the values of me∗<4.8 TeV are excluded. The presented limits on Λ are more stringent than those obtained in previous searches

Combination of searches for heavy resonances decaying into bosonic and leptonic final states using 36 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for new heavy resonances decaying into different pairings of W,Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons, are presented using a data sample corresponding to 36.1 fb−1 of pp collisions at √s=13 TeV collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting bosonic decay modes in the qqqq, ννqq, ℓνqq, ℓℓqq, ℓνℓν, ℓℓνν, ℓνℓℓ, ℓℓℓℓ, qqbb, ννbb, ℓνbb, and ℓℓbb final states are combined, searching for a narrow-width resonance. Likewise, analyses selecting the leptonic ℓν and ℓℓ final states are also combined. These two sets of analyses are then further combined. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed. Three benchmark models are tested: a model predicting the existence of a new heavy scalar singlet, a simplified model predicting a heavy vector-boson triplet, and a bulk Randall-Sundrum model with a heavy spin-2 Kaluza-Klein excitation of the graviton. Cross section limits are set at the 95% confidence level using an asymptotic approximation and are compared with predictions for the benchmark models. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.5 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario and 4.5 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, as well as a Kaluza-Klein graviton with mass below 2.3 TeV

Search for the HH → b b ¯ b b ¯ process via vector-boson fusion production using proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: A search for Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion (VBF) in the bb¯bb¯ final state is carried out with the ATLAS experiment using 126 fb−1 of proton- proton collision data delivered at s = 13 TeV by the Large Hadron Collider. This search is sensitive to VBF production of additional heavy bosons that may decay into Higgs boson pairs, and in a non-resonant topology it can constrain the quartic coupling between the Higgs bosons and vector bosons. No significant excess relative to the Standard Model expectation is observed, and limits on the production cross-section are set at the 95% confidence level for a heavy scalar resonance in the context of an extended Higgs sector, and for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production. Interpretation in terms of the coupling between a Higgs boson pair and two vector bosons is also provided: coupling values normalised to the Standard Model expectation of κ2V 2.90 are excluded at the 95% confidence level in data

Search for supersymmetry in final states with charm jets and missing transverse momentum in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetric partners of top quarks decaying as t~1→c\upchi~01 and supersymmetric partners of charm quarks decaying as c~1→c\upchi~01 , where \upchi~01 is the lightest neutralino, is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb−1 pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and is performed in final states with jets identified as containing charm hadrons. Assuming a 100% branching ratio to c\upchi~01 , top and charm squarks with masses up to 850 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest neutralino. For mt~1,c~1−m\upchi~01 &lt; 100 GeV, top and charm squark masses up to 500 GeV are excluded

Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into two spin-zero particles in the H \u2192 aa \u2192 4b channel in pp collisions at 1as=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of spin-zero particles, H \u2192 aa, where the a-boson decay sin to b-quarks promptly or with a mean proper lifetime c\u3c4a up to 6 mm and has a mass in the range of 20\u201360 GeV, is presented. The search is performed in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, giving rise to a signature of one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and multiple jets from b-quark decays. The analysis is based on the dataset of proton-proton collisions at s 1a=13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb 121. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and 95% confidence-level upper limits are derived for the production cross-sections for pp \u2192 WH, ZH and their combination, times the branching ratio of the decay chain H \u2192 aa \u2192 4b. For a-bosons which decay promptly, the upper limit on the combination of cross-sections for WH and ZH times the branching ratio of H \u2192 aa \u2192 4b ranges from 3.0 pb for ma = 20 GeV to 1.3 pb for ma = 60 GeV, assuming that the ratio of WH to ZH cross-sections follows the Standard Model prediction. For a-bosons with longer proper lifetimes, the most stringent limits are 1.8 pb and 0.68 pb, respectively, at c\u3c4a 3c 0.4 mm