Combination of searches for invisible decays of the Higgs boson using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at √s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS experiment

Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the production of dark matter particles at the LHC. Sufficiently light dark matter particles may be produced in decays of the Higgs boson that would appear invisible to the detector. This Letter presents a statistical combination of searches for H → invisible decays where multiple production modes of the Standard Model Higgs boson are considered. These searches are performed with the ATLAS detector using 139 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre–of–mass energy of √s = 13 TeV at the LHC. In combination with the results at √s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV, an upper limit on the H → invisible branching ratio of 0.107 (0.077) at the 95% confidence level is observed (expected). These results are also interpreted in the context of models where the 125 GeV Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross-section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons

Differential cross-section measurements of the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets using the ATLAS detector

Differential cross-sections are measured for the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets. These measurements are sensitive to final states in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction as well as to the purely-electroweak vector boson scattering process. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at s = 13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are compared to state-of-the-art Monte Carlo event generator predictions. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions that are induced by dimension-six and dimension-eight operators in Standard Model effective field theory

Search for top-philic heavy resonances in pp collisions at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for the associated production of a heavy resonance with a top-quark or a top-antitop-quark pair, and decaying into a tt¯ pair is presented. The search uses the data recorded by the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s=13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider during the years 2015–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1. Events containing exactly one electron or muon are selected. The two hadronically decaying top quarks from the resonance decay are reconstructed using jets clustered with a large radius parameter of R=1. The invariant mass spectrum of the two top quark candidates is used to search for a resonance signal in the range of 1.0 TeV to 3.2 TeV. The presence of a signal is examined using an approach with minimal model dependence followed by a model-dependent interpretation. No significant excess is observed over the background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio at 95% confidence level are provided for a heavy Z′ boson based on a simplified model, for Z′ mass between 1.0 TeV and 3.0 TeV. The observed (expected) limits range from 21 (14) fb to 119 (86) fb depending on the choice of model parameters

Search for a CP-odd Higgs boson decaying into a heavy CP-even Higgs boson and a Z boson in the ℓ+ℓ−tt¯ and νν¯bb¯ final states using 140 fb⁻¹ of data collected with the ATLAS detector

A search for a heavy CP-odd Higgs boson, A, decaying into a Z boson and a heavy CP-even Higgs boson, H, is presented. It uses the full LHC Run 2 dataset of pp collisions at s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The search for A → ZH is performed in the ℓ+ℓ−tt¯ and νν¯bb¯ final states and surpasses the reach of previous searches in different final states in the region with mH > 350 GeV and mA > 800 GeV. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is found. Upper limits are placed on the production cross-section times the decay branching ratios. Limits with less model dependence are also presented as functions of the reconstructed m(tt¯) and m(bb¯) distributions in the ℓ+ℓ−tt¯ and νν¯bb¯ channels, respectively. In addition, the results are interpreted in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models

Test of CP-invariance of the Higgs boson in vector-boson fusion production and in its decay into four leptons

Abstract : A search for CP violation in the decay kinematics and vector-boson fusion production of the Higgs boson is performed in the H → ZZ* → 4ℓ (ℓ = e, μ) decay channel. The results are based on proton-proton collision data produced at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1. Matrix element-based optimal observables are used to constrain CP-odd couplings beyond the Standard Model in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory expressed in the Warsaw and Higgs bases. Differential fiducial cross-section measurements of the optimal observables are also performed, and a new fiducial cross-section measurement for vector-boson-fusion production is provided. All measurements are in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of a CP-even Higgs boson

Inclusive and differential cross-section measurements of tt¯Z production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector, including EFT and spin-correlation interpretations

Measurements of both the inclusive and differential production cross sections of a top-quark-top-antiquark pair in association with a Z boson (tt¯Z) are presented. Final states with two, three or four isolated leptons (electrons or muons) are targeted. The measurements use the data recorded by the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider during the years 2015–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. The inclusive cross section is measured to be σtt¯Z = 0.86 ± 0.04 (stat.) ± 0.04 (syst.) pb and found to be in agreement with the most advanced Standard Model predictions. The differential measurements are presented as a function of a number of observables that probe the kinematics of the tt¯Z system. Both the absolute and normalised differential cross-section measurements are performed at particle level and parton level for specific fiducial volumes, and are compared with NLO+NNLL theoretical predictions. The results are interpreted in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory and used to set limits on a large number of dimension-6 operators involving the top quark. The first measurement of spin correlations in tt¯Z events is presented: the results are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations, and the null hypothesis of no spin correlations is disfavoured with a significance of 1.8 standard deviations

Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the 2b+2ℓ+ETmiss final state in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair (HH) production is presented, in which one of the Higgs bosons decays to a b-quark pair (bb¯) and the other decays to WW*, ZZ*, or τ+τ−, with in each case a final state with ℓ+ℓ−+ neutrinos (ℓ = e, μ). The analysis targets separately the gluon-gluon fusion and vector boson fusion production modes. Data recorded by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1, are used in this analysis. Events are selected to have exactly two b-tagged jets and two leptons with opposite electric charge and missing transverse momentum in the final state. These events are classified using multivariate analysis algorithms to separate the HH events from other Standard Model processes. No evidence of the signal is found. The observed (expected) upper limit on the cross-section for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 9.7 (16.2) times the Standard Model prediction at 95% confidence level. The Higgs boson self-interaction coupling parameter κλ and the quadrilinear coupling parameter κ2V are each separately constrained by this analysis to be within the ranges [−6.2, 13.3] and [−0.17, 2.4], respectively, at 95% confidence level, when all other parameters are fixed

Search for direct production of electroweakinos in final states with one lepton, jets and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Searches for electroweak production of wino-like chargino pairs, χ~1+χ~1−, and of wino-like chargino and next-to-lightest neutralino, χ~1±χ~20, are presented. The models explored assume that the charginos decay into a W boson and the lightest neutralino, χ~1±→W±χ~10. The next-to-lightest neutralinos are degenerate in mass with the chargino and decay to χ~10 and either a Z or a Higgs boson, χ~20→Zχ~10 or hχ~10. The searches exploit the presence of a single isolated lepton and missing transverse momentum from the W boson decay products and the lightest neutralinos, and the presence of jets from hadronically decaying Z or W bosons or from the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of b-quarks. The searches use 139 fb−1 of (Formula presented.) TeV proton-proton collisions data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018. No deviations from the Standard Model expectations are found, and 95% confidence level exclusion limits are set. Chargino masses ranging from 260 to 520 GeV are excluded for a massless χ~10 in chargino pair production models. Degenerate chargino and next-to-lightest neutralino masses ranging from 260 to 420 GeV are excluded for a massless χ~10 for χ~20→Zχ~10. For decays through an on-shell Higgs boson and for mass-splitting between χ~1±/χ~20 and χ~10 as small as the Higgs boson mass, mass limits are improved by up to 40 GeV in the range of 200–260 GeV and 280–470 GeV compared to previous ATLAS constraints

Measurement of the total and differential cross-sections of tt¯W production in pp collisions at s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract : Measurements of inclusive and differential production cross-sections of a top-quark-top-antiquark pair in association with a W boson ($$t\overline{t}W$$ t t ¯ W ) are presented. They are performed by targeting final states with two same-sign or three isolated leptons (electrons or muons) and are based on $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1, recorded from 2015 to 2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The inclusive $$t\overline{t}W$$ t t ¯ W production cross-section is measured to be 880 ± 80 fb, compared to a reference theoretical prediction of 745 ± 50 (scale) ± 13 (2-loop approx.) ± 19 (PDF, αs) fb. Differential cross-section measurements characterise this process in detail for the first time. Several particle-level observables are compared with a variety of theoretical predictions, which generally agree well with the normalised differential cross-section results. Additionally, the relative charge asymmetry of $$t\overline{t}{W}^{+}$$ t t ¯ W + and $$t\overline{t}{W}^{-}$$ t t ¯ W − is measured inclusively to be $${A}_{\textrm{C}}^{\textrm{rel}}$$ A C rel = 0.33 ± 0.05, in very good agreement with the theoretical prediction of 0.322 ± 0.003 (scale) ± 0.007 (PDF), as well as differentially

A precise measurement of the Z-boson double-differential transverse momentum and rapidity distributions in the full phase space of the decay leptons with the ATLAS experiment at s=8 TeV

This paper presents for the first time a precise measurement of the production properties of the Z boson in the full phase space of the decay leptons. This is in contrast to the many previous precise unfolded measurements performed in the fiducial phase space of the decay leptons. The measurement is obtained from proton–proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2012 at s=8 TeV at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb-1. The results, based on a total of 15.3 million Z-boson decays to electron and muon pairs, extend and improve a previous measurement of the full set of angular coefficients describing Z-boson decay. The double-differential cross-section distributions in Z-boson transverse momentum pT and rapidity y are measured in the pole region, defined as 80<mℓℓ<100 GeV, over the range |y|<3.6. The total uncertainty of the normalised cross-section measurements in the peak region of the pT distribution is dominated by statistical uncertainties over the full range and increases as a function of rapidity from 0.5–1.0% for |y|<2.0 to 2-7% at higher rapidities. The results for the rapidity-dependent transverse momentum distributions are compared to state-of-the-art QCD predictions, which combine in the best cases approximate N4LL resummation with N3LO fixed-order perturbative calculations. The differential rapidity distributions integrated over pT are even more precise, with accuracies from 0.2–0.3% for |y|<2.0 to 0.4–0.9% at higher rapidities, and are compared to fixed-order QCD predictions using the most recent parton distribution functions. The agreement between data and predictions is quite good in most cases