Characterisation of a Novel White Laccase from the Deuteromycete Fungus Myrothecium verrucaria NF-05 and Its Decolourisation of Dyes

A novel ‘white’ laccase was purified from the deuteromycete fungus, Myrothecium verrucaria NF-05, which was a high laccase-producing strain (40.2 U·ml−1 on the thirteenth day during fermentation). SDS-PAGE and native-PAGE revealed a single band with laccase activity corresponding to a molecular weight of approximately 66 kDa. The enzyme had three copper and one iron atoms per protein molecule determined by ICP-AES. Furthermore, both UV/visible and EPR spectroscopy remained silence, indicating the enzyme a novel laccase with new metal compositions of active centre and spectral properties. The N-terminal amino acid sequence of the purified protein was APQISPQYPM. Together with MALDI-TOF analysis, the protein revealed a high homology of the protein with that from reported M. verrucaria. The highest activity was detected at pH 4.0 and at 30°C. The enzyme activity was significantly enhanced by Na+, Mn2+, Cu2+ and Zn2+ while inhibited by DTT, NaN3 and halogen anions. The kinetic constant (Km) showed the enzyme was more affinitive to ABTS than other tested aromatic substrates. Twelve structurally different dyes could be effectively decolourised by the laccase within 10 min. The high production of the strain and novel properties of the laccase suggested its potential for biotechnological applications

Precise test of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays into muons and electrons in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ratio of branching ratios of the W boson to muons and electrons, RWμ/e=B(W→μν)/B(W→eν), has been measured using 140fb-1 of pp collision data at s=13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, probing the universality of lepton couplings. The ratio is obtained from measurements of the tt ̄ production cross-section in the ee, eμ and μμ dilepton final states. To reduce systematic uncertainties, it is normalised by the square root of the corresponding ratio RZμμ/ee for the Z boson measured in inclusive Z→ee and Z→μμ events. By using the precise value of RZμμ/ee determined from e+e- colliders, the ratio RWμ/e is determined to be (Formula presented.) The three uncertainties correspond to data statistics, experimental systematics and the external measurement of RZμμ/ee, giving a total uncertainty of 0.0045, and confirming the Standard Model assumption of lepton flavour universality in W-boson decays at the 0.5% level

Precise measurements of W- and Z-boson transverse momentum spectra with the ATLAS detector using pp collisions at √s=5.02 TeV and 13 TeV

This paper describes measurements of the transverse momentum spectra of W and Z bosons produced in proton–proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of s=5.02 TeV and s=13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Measurements are performed in the electron and muon channels, W→lν and Z→ll (l=e or μ), and for W events further separated by charge. The data were collected in 2017 and 2018, in dedicated runs with reduced instantaneous luminosity, and correspond to 255 and 338 pb-1 at s=5.02 TeV and 13 TeV, respectively. These conditions optimise the reconstruction of the W-boson transverse momentum. The distributions observed in the electron and muon channels are unfolded, combined, and compared to QCD calculations based on parton shower Monte Carlo event generators and analytical resummation. The description of the transverse momentum distributions by Monte Carlo event generators is imperfect and shows significant differences largely common to W-, W+ and Z production. The agreement is better at s=5.02 TeV, especially for predictions that were tuned to Z production data at s=7 TeV. Higher-order, resummed predictions based on DYTurbo generally match the data best across the spectra. Distribution ratios are also presented and test the understanding of differences between the production processes

Search for short- and long-lived axion-like particles in H → aa → 4γ decays with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC

Presented is the search for anomalous Higgs boson decays into two axion-like particles (ALPs) using the full Run 2 data set of 140fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment. The ALPs are assumed to decay into two photons, providing sensitivity to recently proposed models that could explain the (g-2)μ discrepancy. This analysis covers an ALP mass range from 100 to 62GeV and ALP-photon couplings in the range 10-7TeV-

Measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the H*→ZZ→4l decay channel using a neural simulation-based inference technique in 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the H∗ → ZZ → 4l decay channel is presented. The measurement uses 140 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider and supersedes the previous result in this decay channel using the same dataset. The data analysis is performed using a neural simulation-based inference method, which builds per-event likelihood ratios using neural networks. The observed (expected) off-shell Higgs boson production signal strength in the ZZ → 4l decay channel at 68% CL is 0.87+0.75−0.54 (1.00+1.04−0.95). The evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production using the ZZ → 4l decay channel has an observed (expected) significance of 2.5σ (1.3σ). The expected result represents a significant improvement relative to that of the previous analysis of the same dataset, which obtained an expected significance of 0.5σ. When combined with the most recent ATLAS measurement in the ZZ → 2l2ν decay channel, the evidence for off-shell Higgs boson production has an observed (expected) significance of 3.7σ (2.4σ). The off-shell measurements are combined with the measurement of on-shell Higgs boson production to obtain constraints on the Higgs boson total width. The observed (expected) value of the Higgs boson width at 68% CL is 4.3+2.7−1.9 (4.1+3.5−3.4) MeV