Measurement of the nuclear modification factor for muons from charm and bottom hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Heavy-flavour hadron production provides information about the transport properties and microscopic structure of the quark–gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. A measurement of the muons from semileptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons produced in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at a nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The Pb+Pb data were collected in 2015 and 2018 with sampled integrated luminosities of 208μb−1 and 38μb−1, respectively, and pp data with a sampled integrated luminosity of 1.17pb−1 were collected in 2017. Muons from heavy-flavour semileptonic decays are separated from the light-flavour hadronic background using the momentum imbalance between the inner detector and muon spectrometer measurements, and muons originating from charm and bottom decays are further separated via the muon track's transverse impact parameter. Differential yields in Pb+Pb collisions and differential cross sections in pp collisions for such muons are measured as a function of muon transverse momentum from 4 GeV to 30 GeV in the absolute pseudorapidity interval |η|<2. Nuclear modification factors for charm and bottom muons are presented as a function of muon transverse momentum in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. The bottom muon results are the most precise measurement of b quark nuclear modification at low transverse momentum where reconstruction of B hadrons is challenging. The measured nuclear modification factors quantify a significant suppression of the yields of muons from decays of charm and bottom hadrons, with stronger effects for muons from charm hadron decays

Search for heavy, long-lived, charged particles with large ionisation energy loss in pppp collisions at s=13 TeV\sqrt{s} = 13~\text{TeV} using the ATLAS experiment and the full Run 2 dataset

International audienceThis paper presents a search for hypothetical massive, charged, long-lived particles with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{−1}$ of proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. These particles are expected to move significantly slower than the speed of light and should be identifiable by their high transverse momenta and anomalously large specific ionisation losses, dE/dx. Trajectories reconstructed solely by the inner tracking system and a dE/dx measurement in the pixel detector layers provide sensitivity to particles with lifetimes down to $\mathcal{O}$(1) ns with a mass, measured using the Bethe–Bloch relation, ranging from 100 GeV to 3 TeV. Interpretations for pair-production of R-hadrons, charginos and staus in scenarios of supersymmetry compatible with these particles being long-lived are presented, with mass limits extending considerably beyond those from previous searches in broad ranges of lifetime.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Differential tt‾ t\overline{t} cross-section measurements using boosted top quarks in the all-hadronic final state with 139 fb−1^{−1} of ATLAS data

International audienceMeasurements of single-, double-, and triple-differential cross-sections are presented for boosted top-quark pair-production in 13 TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The top quarks are observed through their hadronic decay and reconstructed as large-radius jets with the leading jet having transverse momentum (p$_{T}$) greater than 500 GeV. The observed data are unfolded to remove detector effects. The particle-level cross-section, multiplied by the $t\overline{t}\to WWb\overline{b}$ branching fraction and measured in a fiducial phase space defined by requiring the leading and second-leading jets to have p$_{T}$> 500 GeV and p$_{T}$> 350 GeV, respectively, is 331 ± 3(stat.) ± 39(syst.) fb. This is approximately 20% lower than the prediction of ${398}_{-49}^{+48}$ fb by Powheg+Pythia 8 with next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy but consistent within the theoretical uncertainties. Results are also presented at the parton level, where the effects of top-quark decay, parton showering, and hadronization are removed such that they can be compared with fixed-order next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) calculations. The parton-level cross-section, measured in a fiducial phase space similar to that at particle level, is 1.94 ± 0.02(stat.) ± 0.25(syst.) pb. This agrees with the NNLO prediction of ${1.96}_{-0.17}^{+0.02}$ pb. Reasonable agreement with the differential cross-sections is found for most NLO models, while the NNLO calculations are generally in better agreement with the data. The differential cross-sections are interpreted using a Standard Model effective field-theory formalism and limits are set on Wilson coefficients of several four-fermion operators.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Search for new phenomena in final states with photons, jets and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

International audienceA search for new phenomena has been performed in final states with at least one isolated high-momentum photon, jets and missing transverse momentum in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The data, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{−1}$. The experimental results are interpreted in a supersymmetric model in which pair-produced gluinos decay into neutralinos, which in turn decay into a gravitino, at least one photon, and jets. No significant deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model are observed. Upper limits are set on the visible cross section due to physics beyond the Standard Model, and lower limits are set on the masses of the gluinos and neutralinos, all at 95% confidence level. Visible cross sections greater than 0.022 fb are excluded and pair-produced gluinos with masses up to 2200 GeV are excluded for most of the NLSP masses investigated.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Search for resonant and non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the bb‾τ+τ− b\overline{b}{\tau}^{+}{\tau}^{-} decay channel using 13 TeV pp collision data from the ATLAS detector

International audienceA search for Higgs boson pair production in events with two b-jets and two τ-leptons is presented, using a proton–proton collision dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{−1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Higgs boson pairs produced non-resonantly or in the decay of a narrow scalar resonance in the mass range from 251 to 1600 GeV are targeted. Events in which at least one τ-lepton decays hadronically are considered, and multivariate discriminants are used to reject the backgrounds. No significant excess of events above the expected background is observed in the non-resonant search. The largest excess in the resonant search is observed at a resonance mass of 1 TeV, with a local (global) significance of 3.1σ (2.0σ). Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at 4.7 (3.9) times the Standard Model prediction, assuming Standard Model kinematics, and on the resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at between 21 and 900 fb (12 and 840 fb), depending on the mass of the narrow scalar resonance.[graphic not available: see fulltext

Constraints on Higgs boson production with large transverse momentum using H -> b(b)over-bar decays in the ATLAS detector

This paper reports constraints on Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 1 TeV. The analyzed data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV were recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider from 2015 to 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 136 fb(-1.) Higgs bosons decaying into b (b) over bar are reconstructed as single large-radius jets recoiling against a hadronic system and are identified by the experimental signature of two b-hadron decays. The experimental techniques are validated in the same kinematic regime using the Z -&gt; b (b) over bar process. The 95% confidence-level upper limit on the cross section for Higgs boson production with transverse momentum above 450 GeV is 115 fb, and above 1 TeV it is 9.6 fb. The Standard Model cross section predictions for a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV in the same kinematic regions are 18.4 fb and 0.13 fb, respectively

Search for a light charged Higgs boson in t→H±bt \rightarrow H^{\pm}b decays, with H±→cbH^{\pm} \rightarrow cb, in the lepton+jets final state in proton-proton collisions at s=13\sqrt{s}=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

International audienceA search for a charged Higgs boson, H$^{±}$, produced in top-quark decays, t → H$^{±}$b, is presented. The search targets H$^{±}$ decays into a bottom and a charm quark, H$^{±}$ → cb. The analysis focuses on a selection enriched in top-quark pair production, where one top quark decays into a leptonically decaying W boson and a bottom quark, and the other top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark. This topology leads to a lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets containing b-hadrons, and deploys a neural network classifier that uses the kinematic differences between the signal and the background. The search uses a dataset of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{−1}$. Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.15% (0.09%) and 0.42% (0.25%) are derived for the product of branching fractions $\mathcal{B}$(t → H$^{±}$b) × B(H$^{±}$ → cb) for charged Higgs boson masses between 60 and 160 GeV, assuming the SM production of the top-quark pairs.[graphic not available: see fulltext