Search for boosted diphoton resonances in the 10 to 70 GeV mass range using 138 fb−1 of 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for diphoton resonances in the mass range between 10 and 70 GeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented. The analysis is based on pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded from 2015 to 2018. Previous searches for diphoton resonances at the LHC have explored masses down to 65 GeV, finding no evidence of new particles. This search exploits the particular kinematics of events with pairs of closely spaced photons reconstructed in the detector, allowing examination of invariant masses down to 10 GeV. The presented strategy covers a region previously unexplored at hadron colliders because of the experimental challenges of recording low-energy photons and estimating the backgrounds. No significant excess is observed and the reported limits provide the strongest bound on promptly decaying axion-like particles coupling to gluons and photons for masses between 10 and 70 GeV

Charged-hadron production in pp, p+Pb, Pb+Pb, and Xe+Xe collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

This paper presents measurements of charged-hadron spectra obtained in pp, p+Pb, and Pb+Pb collisions at s√ or sNN−−−√ = 5.02 TeV, and in Xe+Xe collisions at sNN−−−√ = 5.44 TeV. The data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC have total integrated luminosities of 25 pb−1, 28 nb−1, 0.50 nb−1, and 3 μb−1, respectively. The nuclear modification factors RpPb and RAA are obtained by comparing the spectra in heavy-ion and pp collisions in a wide range of charged-particle transverse momenta and pseudorapidity. The nuclear modification factor RpPb shows a moderate enhancement above unity with a maximum at pT ≈ 3 GeV; the enhancement is stronger in the Pb-going direction. The nuclear modification factors in both Pb+Pb and Xe+Xe collisions feature a significant, centrality-dependent suppression. They show a similar distinct pT-dependence with a local maximum at pT ≈ 2 GeV and a local minimum at pT ≈ 7 GeV. This dependence is more distinguishable in more central collisions. No significant |η|-dependence is found. A comprehensive comparison with several theoretical predictions is also provided. They typically describe RAA better in central collisions and in the pT range from about 10 to 100 GeV

Search for dark photons from Higgs boson decays via ZH production with a photon plus missing transverse momentum signature from pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a search for dark photons (γd) in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The dark photons are searched for in the decay of Higgs bosons (H → γγd) produced through the ZH production mode. The transverse mass of the system, made of the photon and the missing transverse momentum from the non-interacting γd, presents a distinctive signature as it peaks near the Higgs boson mass. The results presented use the total Run-2 integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The dominant reducible background processes are estimated using data-driven techniques. A Boosted Decision Tree technique is adopted to enhance the sensitivity of the search. As no excess is observed with respect to the Standard Model prediction, an observed (expected) upper limit on the branching ratio BR(H → γγd) of 2.28% (2.82+1.33−0.84% ) is set at 95% CL for massless γd. For massive dark photons up to 40 GeV, the observed (expected) upper limits on BR(H → γγd) at 95% confidence level is found within the [2.19,2.52]% ([2.71,3.11]%) range

ATLAS flavour-tagging algorithms for the LHC Run 2 pp collision dataset

The flavour-tagging algorithms developed by the ATLAS Collaboration and used to analyse its dataset of \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV pp collisions from Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider are presented. These new tagging algorithms are based on recurrent and deep neural networks, and their performance is evaluated in simulated collision events. These developments yield considerable improvements over previous jet-flavour identification strategies. At the 77% b-jet identification efficiency operating point, light-jet (charm-jet) rejection factors of 170 (5) are achieved in a sample of simulated Standard Model events; similarly, at a c-jet identification efficiency of 30%, a light-jet (b-jet) rejection factor of 70 (9) is obtained

Determination of the strong coupling constant from transverse energy-energy correlations in multijet events at s√ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Measurements of transverse energy-energy correlations and their associated azimuthal asymmetries in multijet events are presented. The analysis is performed using a data sample corresponding to 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√ = 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are presented in bins of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the two leading jets and unfolded to particle level. They are then compared to next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations for the first time, which feature a significant reduction in the theoretical uncertainties estimated using variations of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. The agreement between data and theory is good, thus providing a precision test of QCD at large momentum transfers Q. The strong coupling constant αs is extracted as a function of Q, showing a good agreement with the renormalisation group equation and with previous analyses. A simultaneous fit to all transverse energy-energy correlation distributions across different kinematic regions yields a value of αs(mZ)=0.1175±0.0006(exp.)+0.0034−0.0017(theo.) , while the global fit to the asymmetry distributions yields αs(mZ)=0.1185±0.0009(exp.)+0.0025−0.0012(theo.)

Inclusive-photon production and its dependence on photon isolation in pp collisions at s√ = 13 TeV using 139 fb−1 of ATLAS data

Measurements of differential cross sections are presented for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV provided by the LHC and using 139 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment. The cross sections are measured as functions of the photon transverse energy in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The photons are required to be isolated by means of a fixed-cone method with two different cone radii. The dependence of the inclusive-photon production on the photon isolation is investigated by measuring the fiducial cross sections as functions of the isolation-cone radius and the ratios of the differential cross sections with different radii in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The results presented in this paper constitute an improvement with respect to those published by ATLAS earlier: the measurements are provided for different isolation radii and with a more granular segmentation in photon pseudorapidity that can be exploited in improving the determination of the proton parton distribution functions. These improvements provide a more in-depth test of the theoretical predictions. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from JETPHOX and SHERPA and next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from NNLOJET are compared to the measurements, using several parameterisations of the proton parton distribution functions. The measured cross sections are well described by the fixed-order QCD predictions within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties in most of the investigated phase-space regio

Measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced in top-quark decays using dilepton events at t √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

A measurement of the polarisation of W bosons produced in top-quark decays is presented, using proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV. The data were collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1.The measurement is performed selecting tt¯ events decaying into final states with two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and at least two b-tagged jets. The polarisation is extracted from the differentialcross-section distribution of the cos θ ∗ variable, where θ ∗ is the angle between the momentum direction of the charged lepton from the W boson decay and the reversed momentum direction of the b-quark from the top-quark decay, both calculated in the W boson rest frame. Parton-level results, corrected for the detector acceptance and resolution, are presented for the cos θ ∗ angle. The measured fractions of longitudinal, left- and right-handed polarisation states are found to be f0 = 0.684 ± 0.005 (stat.) ± 0.014 (syst.), fL = 0.318 ± 0.003 (stat.) ± 0.008 (syst.) and fR = −0.002 ± 0.002 (stat.) ± 0.014 (syst.), in agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Inclusive and differential cross-sections for dilepton tt¯ production measured in s√ = 13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Differential and double-differential distributions of kinematic variables of leptons from decays of top-quark pairs (tt¯ ) are measured using the full LHC Run 2 data sample collected with the ATLAS detector. The data were collected at a pp collision energy of s√ = 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The measurements use events containing an oppositely charged eμ pair and b-tagged jets. The results are compared with predictions from several Monte Carlo generators. While no prediction is found to be consistent with all distributions, a better agreement with measurements of the lepton pT distributions is obtained by reweighting the tt¯ sample so as to reproduce the top-quark pT distribution from an NNLO calculation. The inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section is measured as well, both in a fiducial region and in the full phase-space. The total inclusive cross-section is found to be σtt¯=829±1 (stat)±13 (syst)±8 (lumi)±2 (beam) pb, where the uncertainties are due to statistics, systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the beam energy. This is in excellent agreement with the theoretical expectation

Search for ttH/A ¯ → ttt¯ t¯ production in the multilepton final state in proton–proton collisions at √s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for a new heavy scalar or pseudo-scalar Higgs boson (H/A) produced in association with a pair of top quarks, with the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of top quarks (H/A → ) is reported. The search targets a final state with exactly two leptons with same-sign electric charges or at least three leptons. The analysed dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Two multivariate classifiers are used to separate the signal from the background. No significant excess of events over the Standard Model expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of a type-II two-Higgs-doublet model. The observed (expected) upper limits at 95% confidence level on the production cross-section times the branching ratio of H/A → range between 14 (10) fb and 6 (5) fb for a heavy Higgs boson with mass between 400 GeV and 1000 GeV, respectively. Assuming that only one particle, either the scalar H or the pseudo-scalar A, contributes to the final state, values of tan β below 1.2 or 0.5 are excluded for a mass of 400 GeV or 1000 GeV, respectively. These exclusion ranges increase to tan β below 1.6 or 0.6 when both particles are considered