Search for Planckian Black Holes in the Di-Lepton Channel with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

In some scenarios proposing extra dimensions, the fundamental Planck scale is in the order of a TeV, and the apparent weakness of the gravitational force is a consequence of the large compactified volume of the extra dimensions. These scenarios render possible the non-perturbative process of black hole formation at hadron colliders. It has been argued that black hole signatures based on thermal multi-particle final states are very unlikely. However, strong gravity effects at center of mass energies of the order of the Planck mass are expected to yield an increase in the $2\rightarrow 2$ production cross section. This thesis reviews the signatures and discovery potential of Planckian black holes, by which is meant true or virtual black holes or simply strong gravity effects, decaying to two leptons in the context of the ADD model in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV at the LHC. Based on data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during 2010 which correspond to a total integrated luminosity of $\sim 40$ pb$^{-1}$, no statistically significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. A combined search for high-mass and boosted di-lepton final states results in upper limits at the 95\% confidence level on the production cross section for three Planckian black hole models. Assuming six large extra dimensions and a Planck mass of 2 TeV, the quoted limits are; $8.2 \times 10^{1}$ pb for conservation of B, L and flavours; $6.2 \times 10^{1}$ pb for conservation of B and L; $5.3 \times 10^{1}$ pb for conservation of B-L only

Search for heavy lepton resonances decaying to a ZZ boson and a lepton in pppp collisions at s=8\sqrt{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 $\sqrt{s}=8$ 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

Search for new phenomena in events containing a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair, jets, and large missing transverse momentum in s=\sqrt{s}= 13 pppp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Two searches for new phenomena in final states containing a same-flavour opposite-lepton (electron or muon) pair, jets, and large missing transverse momentum are presented. These searches make use of proton--proton collision data, collected during 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, which correspond to an integrated luminosity of 14.7 fb$^{-1}$, Both searches target the pair production of supersymmetric particles, squarks or gluinos, which decay to final states containing a same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pair via one of two mechanisms: a leptonically decaying Z boson in the final state, leading to a peak in the dilepton invariant-mass distribution around the Z boson mass; and decays of neutralinos (e.g. $\tilde{\chi}_2^0 \rightarrow \ell^+\ell^- \tilde{\chi}_1^0$), yielding a kinematic endpoint in the dilepton invariant-mass spectrum. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Results are interpreted in simplified models of gluino-pair (squark-pair) production, and provide sensitivity to gluinos (squarks) with masses as large as 1.70 TeV (980 GeV).publishedVersio

Search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced in association with a hadronically decaying vector boson in pppp collisions at s=8\sqrt{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 $VH$ production followed by $H$ decaying to invisible particles for the Higgs mass range $115<m_H<300$ GeV. The 95% confidence-level observed upper limit on $\sigma_{VH} \times \text{BR}(H\rightarrow \text{inv.})$ varies from 1.6 pb at 115 GeV to 0.13 pb at 300 GeV. Assuming Standard Model production and including the $gg\rightarrow H$ 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.publishedVersio

Search for heavy lepton resonances decaying to a ZZ boson and a lepton in pppp collisions at s=8\sqrt{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 $\sqrt{s}=8$ 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.publishedVersio

Measurement of the W-boson mass in pp collisions at s√=7TeV with the ATLAS detector

A measurement of the mass of the W boson is presented based on proton–proton collision data recorded in 2011 at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, and corresponding to 4.6 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The selected data sample consists of 7.8×106 candidates in the → channel and 5.9×106 candidates in the → channel. The W-boson mass is obtained from template fits to the reconstructed distributions of the charged lepton transverse momentum and of the W boson transverse mass in the electron and muon decay channels, yielding =80370=80370±7 (stat.)±11(exp. syst.)±14 (mod. syst.) MeV±19MeV, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second corresponds to the experimental systematic uncertainty, and the third to the physics-modelling systematic uncertainty. A measurement of the mass difference between the + and − bosons yields +−−=−29±28 MeV.publishedVersio

Measurement of the cross section for isolated-photon plus jet production in pp collisions at √s = 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti- algorithm with radius parameter and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements.publishedVersio

Constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson signal strength in the high-mass ZZZZ and WWWW final states with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of the $ZZ$ and $WW$ final states in the mass range above the $2m_Z$ and $2m_W$ thresholds provide a unique opportunity to measure the off-shell coupling strength of the Higgs boson. This paper presents a determination of the off-shell Higgs boson event yields normalised to the Standard Model prediction (signal strength) in the $ZZ \rightarrow 4\ell$, $ZZ\rightarrow 2\ell2\nu$ and $WW\rightarrow e\nu\mu\nu$ final states. The result is based on $pp$ collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $20.3$ fb$^{\mathrm{-1}}$ at a collision energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. Using the $CL_s$ method, the observed 95% confidence level (CL) upper limit on the off-shell signal strength is in the range 5.1--8.6, with an expected range of 6.7--11.0. In each case the range is determined by varying the unknown $gg\rightarrow ZZ$ and $gg\rightarrow WW$ background K-factor from higher-order QCD corrections between half and twice the value of the known signal K-factor. Assuming the relevant Higgs boson couplings are independent of the energy scale of the Higgs production, a combination with the on-shell measurements yields an observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on $\Gamma_H/\Gamma_H^{\mathrm{SM}}$ in the range 4.5--7.5 (6.5--11.2) using the same variations of the background K-factor. Assuming that the unknown $gg\rightarrow VV$ background K-factor is equal to the signal K-factor, this translates into an observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV

Search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles in pppp collisions at s\sqrt{s}=8 TeV using the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles is performed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data collected in 2012 at $\sqrt{s}$=8 TeV from $pp$ collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $20.3$ fb$^{-1}$ are examined. Particles producing anomalously high ionisation, consistent with long-lived massive particles with electric charges from $|q|=2e$ to $|q|=6e$ are searched for. No signal candidate events are observed, and 95% confidence level cross-section upper limits are interpreted as lower mass limits for a Drell--Yan production model. The mass limits range between 660 and 785 GeV

Search for triboson W±W±W∓W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp} production in pppp collisions at s=8\sqrt{s}=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a search for triboson $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production in two decay channels $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}\rightarrow \ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\mp}\nu$ and $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}\rightarrow \ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\pm}\nu jj$ with $\ell=e, \mu$ in proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb\).{-1}\) at a centre of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with exactly three charged leptons, or two leptons with the same electric charge in association with two jets, are selected. The total number of events observed in data is consistent with the Standard Model (SM) predictions. The observed 95% confidence level upper limit on the SM $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production cross section is found to be 730 fb with an expected limit of 560 fb in the absence of SM $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production. Limits are also set on $WWWW$ anomalous quartic gauge couplings