Search for squarks and gluinos with the ATLAS detector in final states with jets and missing transverse momentum using √s=8 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-p T jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in s√=8 TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A 0 = −2m 0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector

Measurement of the charge asymmetry in dileptonic Decays of top quark pairs in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the top-antitop (tt) charge asymmetry is presented using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb −1 of LHC pp collisions at a centre- of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector. Events with two charged leptons, at least two jets and large missing transverse momentum are selected. Two observables are studied: A tt/C, based on the reconstructed tt final state. The asymmetries are measured to be A ll/C = 0.024 +/- 0.015 (stat.) +/- 0.009 (syst.) Att/C = 0.021 +/- 0.025 (stat.) +/- 0.017 (syst.) The measured values are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions

Determination of the top-quark pole mass using tt̄ + 1-jet events collected with the ATLAS experiment in 7 TeV pp collisions

The normalized differential cross section for top-quark pair production in association with at least one jet is studied as a function of the inverse of the invariant mass of the tt̄ + 1-jet system. This distribution can be used for a precise determination of the top-quark mass since gluon radiation depends on the mass of the quarks. The experimental analysis is based on proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb−¹. The selected events were identified using the lepton+jets top-quark-pair decay channel, where lepton refers to either an electron or a muon. The observed distribution is compared to a theoretical prediction at next-to-leading-order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics using the pole-mass scheme. With this method, the measured value of the top-quark pole mass, mtpole, is: mtpole=173.7±1.5(stat.)±1.4(syst.)−0.5+1.0(theory)GeV. This result represents the most precise measurement of the top-quark pole mass to date

Probing the W tb vertex structure in t-channel single-top-quark production and decay in pp collisions at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

To probe the W tb vertex structure, top-quark and W -boson polarisation observables are measured from t-channel single-top-quark events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Selected events contain one isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum and exactly two jets, with one of them identified as likely to contain a b-hadron. Stringent selection requirements are applied to discriminate t-channel single-top-quark events from background. The polarisation observables are extracted from asymmetries in angular distributions measured with respect to spin quantisation axes appropriately chosen for the top quark and the W boson. The asymmetry measurements are performed at parton level by correcting the observed angular distributions for detector effects and hadronisation after subtracting the background contributions. The measured top-quark and W -boson polarisation values are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. Limits on the imaginary part of the anomalous coupling gR are also set from model-independent measurements.We acknowledge the support of ANPCyT, Argentina; YerPhI, Armenia; ARC, Australia; BMWFW and FWF, Austria; ANAS, Azerbaijan; SSTC, Belarus; CNPq and FAPESP, Brazil; NSERC, NRC and CFI, Canada; CERN; CONICYT, Chile; CAS, MOST and NSFC, China; COLCIENCIAS, Colombia; MSMT CR, MPO CR and VSC CR, Czech Republic; DNRF and DNSRC, Denmark; IN2P3-CNRS, CEA-DSM/IRFU, France; SRNSF, Georgia; BMBF, HGF, and MPG, Germany; GSRT, Greece; RGC, Hong Kong SAR, China; ISF, I-CORE and Benoziyo Center, Israel; INFN, Italy; MEXT and JSPS, Japan; CNRST, Morocco; NWO, Netherlands; RCN, Norway; MNiSW and NCN, Poland; FCT, Portugal; MNE/IFA, Romania; MES of Russia and NRC KI, Russian Federation; JINR; MESTD, Serbia; MSSR, Slovakia; ARRS and MIZS, Slovenia; DST/NRF, South Africa; MINECO, Spain; SRC and Wallenberg Foundation, Sweden; SERI, SNSF and Cantons of Bern and Geneva, Switzerland; MOST, Taiwan; TAEK, Turkey; STFC, United Kingdom; DOE and NSF, United States of America. In addition, individual groups and members have received support from BCKDF, the Canada Council, CANARIE, CRC, Compute Canada, FQRNT, and the Ontario Innovation Trust, Canada; EPLANET, ERC, ERDF, FP7, Horizon 2020 and Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions, European Union; Investissements d'Avenir Labex and Idex, ANR, Region Auvergne and Fondation Partager le Savoir, France; DFG and AvH Foundation, Germany; Herakleitos, Thales and Aristeia programmes co-financed by EU-ESF and the Greek NSRF; BSF, GIF and Minerva, Israel; BRF, Norway; CERCA Programme Generalitat de Catalunya, Generalitat Valenciana, Spain; the Royal Society and Leverhulme Trust, United Kingdom.The crucial computing support from all WLCG partners is acknowledged gratefully, in particular from CERN, the ATLAS Tier-1 facilities at TRIUMF (Canada), NDGF (Denmark, Norway, Sweden), CC-IN2P3 (France), KIT/GridKA (Germany), INFN-CNAF (Italy), NL-T1 (Netherlands), PIC (Spain), ASGC (Taiwan), RAL (UK) and BNL (USA), the Tier-2 facilities worldwide and large non-WLCG resource providers. Major contributors of computing resoinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Search for pair production of heavy vector-like quarks decaying into high-pT W bosons and top quarks in the lepton-plus-jets final state in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vector-like B quarks, primarily targeting B quark decays into a W boson and a top quark. The search is based on 36.1 fb −1 of pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum, and multiple jets, of which at least one is b -tagged. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. The 95% confidence level lower limit on the B mass is 1350 GeV assuming a 100% branching ratio to Wt. In the SU(2) singlet scenario, the lower mass limit is 1170 GeV. This search is also sensitive to a heavy vector-like B quark decaying into other final states (Zb and Hb ) and thus mass limits on B production are set as a function of the decay branching ratios. The 100% branching ratio limits are found to be also applicable to heavy vector-like X production, with charge +5/3, that decay into Wt

Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with top quarks and decaying into bb¯ in pp collisions at √s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, tt¯H, is presented. The analysis uses 20.3 fb−1 of pp collision data at √s=8TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during 2012. The search is designed for the H→bb¯ 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 tt¯+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 tt¯+bb¯ background. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found and an observed (expected) limit of 3.4 (2.2) times the Standard Model cross section is obtained at 95% confidence level. The ratio of the measured tt¯H signal cross section to the Standard Model expectation is found to be μ=1.5±1.1 assuming a Higgs boson mass of 125GeV

Search for doubly charged Higgs boson production in multi-lepton final states with the ATLAS detector using proton-proton collisions at √s = 13TeV

A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons with pairs of prompt, isolated, highly energetic leptons with the same electric charge is presented. The search uses a proton–proton collision data sample at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to 36.1 fb −1 of integrated luminosity recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This analysis focuses on the decays H±±→e±e±, H±±→e±μ± and H±±→μ±μ±, fitting the dilepton mass spectra in several exclusive signal regions. No significant evidence of a signal is observed and corresponding limits on the production cross-section and consequently a lower limit on m(H±±) are derived at 95% confidence level. With ℓ±ℓ±=e±e±/μ±μ±/e±μ±, the observed lower limit on the mass of a doubly charged Higgs boson only coupling to left-handed leptons varies from 770 to 870 GeV (850 GeV expected) for B(H±±→ℓ±ℓ±)=100% and both the expected and observed mass limits are above 450 GeV for B(H±±→ℓ±ℓ±)=10% and any combination of partial branching ratios

Measurement of differential cross-sections of a top quark produced in association with a W boson at √s=13 TeV with ATLAS

The differential cross-section for the production of a W boson in association with a top quark is measured for several particle-level observables. The measurements are performed using 36.1fb−1 of pp collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. Differential cross-sections are measured in a fiducial phase space defined by the presence of two charged leptons and exactly one jet matched to a b-hadron, and are normalised with the fiducial cross-section. Results are found to be in good agreement with predictions from several Monte Carlo event generators

Measurement of dijet cross-sections in pp collisions at 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy using the ATLAS detector

Double-differential dijet cross-sections measured in pp collisions at the LHC with a 7 TeV centre-of-mass energy are presented as functions of dijet mass and half the rapidity separation of the two highest-pT jets. These measurements are obtained using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.5 fb−¹, recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2011. The data are corrected for detector effects so that cross-sections are presented at the particle level. Cross-sections are measured up to 5 TeV dijet mass using jets reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm for values of the jet radius parameter of 0.4 and 0.6. The cross-sections are compared with next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations by NLOJet++ corrected to account for non-perturbative effects. Comparisons with POWHEG predictions, using a next-to-leading-order matrix element calculation interfaced to a parton-shower Monte Carlo simulation, are also shown. Electroweak effects are accounted for in both cases. The quantitative comparison of data and theoretical predictions obtained using various parameterizations of the parton distribution functions is performed using a frequentist method. In general, good agreement with data is observed for the NLOJet++ theoretical predictions when using the CT10, NNPDF2.1 and MSTW 2008 PDF sets. Disagreement is observed when using the ABM11 and HERAPDF1.5 PDF sets for some ranges of dijet mass and half the rapidity separation. An example setting a lower limit on the compositeness scale for a model of contact interactions is presented, showing that the unfolded results can be used to constrain contributions to dijet production beyond that predicted by the Standard Model

Jet energy measurement and its systematic uncertainty in proton–proton collisions at √s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The jet energy scale (JES) and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector using proton–proton collision data with a centre-of-mass energy of √s=7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb −1. Jets are reconstructed from energy deposits forming topological clusters of calorimeter cells using the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0.4 or R=0.6, and are calibrated using MC simulations. A residual JES correction is applied to account for differences between data and MC simulations. This correction and its systematic uncertainty are estimated using a combination of in situ techniques exploiting the transverse momentum balance between a jet and a reference object such as a photon or a Z boson, for 20≤pTjet1 TeV. The calibration of forward jets is derived from dijet pT balance measurements. The resulting uncertainty reaches its largest value of 6 % for low-pT jets at |η|=4.5. Additional JES uncertainties due to specific event topologies, such as close-by jets or selections of event samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks or gluons, are also discussed. The magnitude of these uncertainties depends on the event sample used in a given physics analysis, but typically amounts to 0.5–3 %