Antiproliferative, antioxidant and antiplasmodial activities of the root bark of Adenodolichos paniculatus (Hua) Hutch (Fabaceae)

Adenodolichos paniculatus Hua & Hutch (Fabaceae) is a plant whose roots are traditionally employed for the treatment of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and cancer. The powdered root bark of Adenodolichos paniculatus were extracted with dichloromethane followed by 70% methanol to afford dichloromethane (DCM) and hydromethanolic (HME) extracts respectively. Thereafter, fresh powdered root was extracted with water via decoction method and lyophilized to afford aqueous extract (AQE). The extracts were then subjected to standard phytochemical studies, antiproliferative (A2780 ovarian cancer cell assay), antiplasmodial (Dd2 strain of Plasmodium falciparum), antioxidant (DPPH, FRAP and ABTS methods) and brine shrimp lethality assay studies. The DCM extract was found to possess high levels of total phenolics and flavonoids with notable potential antiproliferative (IC50 = 0.14 μg/ml), antiplasmodial (IC50 = 7.50 μg/ml) and cytotoxic (brine shrimp, IC50 = 0.547 μg/ml) activities. However, HME had significant antioxidant (DPPH, IC50 = 17.54 ± 0.03 μg/ml; ABTS, IC50 = 8.08 ± 0.05 μg/ml). Both HME and AQE were found to be inactive against the drug-resistant Dd2 strain of Plasmodium falciparum with an IC50 value ˃100μg/mL. The study revealed the potential of Adenodolichos paniculatus as a promising antiproliferative agent and also corroborated the ethnomedical uses of the plant

Search for pair production of boosted Higgs bosons via vector-boson fusion in the bb¯bb¯ final state using pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion is performed in the Lorentz-boosted regime, where a Higgs boson candidate is reconstructed as a single large-radius jet, using 140 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Only Higgs boson decays into bottom quark pairs are considered. The search is particularly sensitive to the quartic coupling between two vector bosons and two Higgs bosons relative to its Standard Model prediction, K2V . This study constrains K2V to 0.55 < K2V < 1.49 at the 95% confidence level. The value K2V = 0 is excluded with a significance of 3.8 standard deviations with other Higgs boson couplings fixed to their Standard Model values. A search for new heavy spin-0 resonances that would mediate Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion is carried out in the mass range of 1–5 TeV for the first time under several model and decay-width assumptions. No significant deviation from the Standard Model hypothesis is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived

Search for the Zγ decay mode of new high-mass resonances in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This letter presents a search for narrow, high-mass resonances in the Zγ final state with the Z boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons. The √s = 13 TeV pp collision data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and have an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The data are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model background expectation. Upper limits are set on the resonance production cross section times the decay branching ratio into Zγ. For spin-0 resonances produced via gluon–gluon fusion, the observed limits at 95% confidence level vary between 65.5 fb and 0.6 fb, while for spin-2 resonances produced via gluon–gluon fusion (or quark–antiquark initial states) limits vary between 77.4 (76.1) fb and 0.6 (0.5) fb, for the mass range from 220 GeV to 3400 GeV

Search for a new heavy scalar particle decaying into a Higgs boson and a new scalar singlet in final states with one or two light leptons and a pair of τ-leptons with the ATLAS detector

A search for a new heavy scalar particle X decaying into a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson and a new singlet scalar particle S is presented. The search uses a proton-proton (pp) collision data sample with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1 recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The most sensitive mass parameter space is explored in X mass ranging from 500 to 1500 GeV, with the corresponding S mass in the range 200–500 GeV. The search selects events with two hadronically decaying τ-lepton candidates from H → τ+τ− decays and one or two light leptons (ℓ = e, μ) from S → VV (V = W, Z) decays while the remaining V boson decays hadronically or to neutrinos. A multivariate discriminant based on event kinematics is used to separate the signal from the background. No excess is observed beyond the expected SM background and 95% confidence level upper limits between 72 fb and 542 fb are derived on the cross-section σ(pp → X → SH) assuming the same SM-Higgs boson-like decay branching ratios for the S → VV decay. Upper limits on the visible cross-sections σ(pp → X → SH → WWττ) and σ(pp → X → SH → ZZττ) are also set in the ranges 3–26 fb and 6–33 fb, respectively

Measurement of diferential cross-sections in tt¯ and tt¯+jets production in the lepton+jets fnal state in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV using 140 fb−1 of ATLAS data

Diferential cross-sections for top-quark pair production, inclusively and in association with jets, are measured in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The events are selected with one charged lepton (electron or muon) and at least four jets. The differential cross-sections are presented at particle level as functions of several jet observables, including angular correlations, jet transverse momenta and invariant masses of the jets in the final state, which characterise the kinematics and dynamics of the top-antitop system and the hard QCD radiation in the system with associated jets. The typical precision is 5%–15% for the absolute differential cross-sections and 2%–4% for the normalised differential cross-sections. Next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions are found to provide an adequate description of the rate and shape of the jet-angular observables. The description of the transverse momentum and invariant mass observables is improved when next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD corrections are included

The ATLAS trigger system for LHC Run 3 and trigger performance in 2022

The ATLAS trigger system is a crucial component of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. It is responsible for selecting events in line with the ATLAS physics programme. This paper presents an overview of the changes to the trigger and data acquisition system during the second long shutdown of the LHC, and shows the performance of the trigger system and its components in the proton-proton collisions during the 2022 commissioning period as well as its expected performance in proton-proton and heavy-ion collisions for the remainder of the third LHC data-taking period (2022–2025)

Observation of quantum entanglement with top quarks at the ATLAS detector

Entanglement is a key feature of quantum mechanics with applications in fields such as metrology, cryptography, quantum information and quantum computation. It has been observed in a wide variety of systems and length scales, ranging from the microscopic to the macroscopic. However, entanglement remains largely unexplored at the highest accessible energy scales. Here we report the highest-energy observation of entanglement, in top–antitop quark events produced at the Large Hadron Collider, using a proton–proton collision dataset with a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV and an integrated luminosity of 140 inverse femtobarns (fb)−1 recorded with the ATLAS experiment. Spin entanglement is detected from the measurement of a single observable D, inferred from the angle between the charged leptons in their parent top- and antitop-quark rest frames. The observable is measured in a narrow interval around the top–antitop quark production threshold, at which the entanglement detection is expected to be significant. It is reported in a fiducial phase space defined with stable particles to minimize the uncertainties that stem from the limitations of the Monte Carlo event generators and the parton shower model in modelling top-quark pair production. The entanglement marker is measured to be D = −0.537 ± 0.002 (stat.) ± 0.019 (syst.) for 340 GeV < mtt < 380 GeV. The observed result is more than five standard deviations from a scenario without entanglement and hence constitutes the first observation of entanglement in a pair of quarks and the highest-energy observation of entanglement so far

Measurement of the cross-sections of the electroweak and total production of a Zγ pair in association with two jets in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This Letter presents the measurement of the fiducial and differential cross-sections of the electroweak production of a Zγ pair in association with two jets. The analysis uses 140 fb−1 of LHC proton–proton collision data taken at √s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector during the years 2015–2018. Events with a Z boson candidate decaying into either an e+e− or μ+μ− pair, a photon and two jets are selected. The electroweak component is extracted by requiring a large dijet invariant mass and by using the information about the centrality of the system and is measured with an observed and expected significance well above five standard deviations. The fiducial pp → Zγ jj cross-section for the electroweak production is measured to be 3.6 ± 0.5 fb. The total fiducial cross-section that also includes contributions where the jets arise from strong interactions is measured to be 16.8+2.0 −1.8 fb. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions. Differential cross-sections are also measured using the same events and are compared with parton-shower Monte Carlo simulations. Good agreement is observed between data and predictions

Measurement of the VH,H → ττ process with the ATLAS detector at 13 TeV

A measurement of the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a W or Z boson and decaying into a pair of τ-leptons is presented. This search is based on proton-proton collision data collected at √s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. For the Higgs boson candidate, only final states with at least one τ-lepton decaying hadronically (τ →hadrons + vτ ) are considered. For the vector bosons, only leptonic decay channels are considered: Z → ℓℓ and W → ℓvℓ, with ℓ = e, μ. An excess of events over the expected background is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.2 (3.6) standard deviations, providing evidence of the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson and decaying into a pair of τ-leptons. The ratio of the measured cross-section to the Standard Model prediction is μττ VH = 1.28 +0.30 −0.29 (stat.) +0.25 −0.21 (syst.). This result represents the most accurate measurement of the VH(ττ) process achieved to date