Search for dark matter produced in association with a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into b-quarks using the full Run 2 dataset from the ATLAS detector

Published: November 26, 2021The production of dark matter in association with Higgs bosons is predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model. An exploration of such scenarios is presented, considering final states with missing transverse momentum and b-tagged jets consistent with a Higgs boson. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during Run 2, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb -1 . The analysis, when compared with previous searches, benefits from a larger dataset, but also has further improvements providing sensitivity to a wider spectrum of signal scenarios. These improvements include both an optimised event selection and advances in the object identification, such as the use of the likelihood-based significance of the missing transverse momentum and variable-radius track-jets. No significant deviation from Standard Model expectations is observed. Limits are set, at 95% confidence level, in two benchmark models with two Higgs doublets extended by either a heavy vector boson Z 0 or a pseudoscalar singlet a and which both provide a dark matter candidate chi. In the case of the two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional vector boson Z 0 , the observed limits extend up to a Z 0 mass of 3 TeV for a mass of 100 GeV for the dark matter candidate. The two-Higgs-doublet model with a dark matter particle mass of 10 GeV and an additional pseudoscalar a is excluded for masses of the a up to 520 GeV and 240 GeV for tan beta = 1 and tan beta = 10 respectively. Limits on the visible cross-sections are set and range from to 0.05 fb to 3.26 fb, depending on the missing transverse momentum and b-quark jet multiplicity requirements.The Atlas Collaboration ... G. Aad ... Paul D. Jackson ... Albert X. Kong ... Harish Potti ... Tristan A. Ruggeri ... Martin White ... et al

Measurements of azimuthal anisotropies of jet production in Pb+Pb collisions at root sNN=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The azimuthal variation of jet yields in heavy-ion collisions provides information about the path-length dependence of the energy loss experienced by partons passing through the hot, dense nuclear matter known as the quark–gluon plasma. This paper presents the azimuthal anisotropy coefficients v2, v3, and v4 measured for jets in Pb + Pb collisions at √ sNN = 5.02 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurement uses data collected in 2015 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 nb−1. The vn values are measured as a function of the transverse momentum of the jets between 71 and 398 GeV and the event centrality. A nonzero value of v2 is observed in all but the most central collisions. The value of v2 is largest for jets with lower transverse momentum, with values up to 0.05 in mid-central collisions. A smaller, nonzero value of v3 of approximately 0.01 is measured with no significant dependence on jet pT or centrality, suggesting that fluctuations in the initial state play a small but distinct role in jet energy loss. No significant deviation of v4 from zero is observed in the measured kinematic region.G. Aad … P. Jackson … A.X.Y. Kong … J.L. Oliver … H. Potti … T.A. Ruggeri … A.S. Sharma … M.J. White … et al. [The ATLAS Collaboration

Search for Higgs boson decays into a pair of pseudoscalar particles in the bb mu mu final state with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at root s=13TeV

This paper presents a search for decays of the Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV into a pair of new pseudoscalar particles, H → aa, where one a-boson decays into a b-quark pair and the other into a muon pair. The search uses 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of ffiffiffi sp¼ 13 TeVrecorded between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. A narrow dimuon resonance is searched for in the invariant mass spectrum between 16 GeV and 62 GeV. The largest excess of events above the Standard Model backgrounds is observed at a dimuon invariant mass of 52 GeVand corresponds to a local (global) significance of 3.3σ (1.7σ). Upper limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to the bbμμ final state, BðH → aa → bbμμÞ, and are in the range 0.2–4.0 × 10−4, depending on the signal mass hypothesis.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... H. Potti ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for heavy particles in the b-tagged dijet mass distribution with additional b-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at root s=13TeV with the ATLAS experiment

A search optimized for new heavy particles decaying to two b-quarks and produced in association with additional b-quarks is reported. The sensitivity is improved by b-tagging at least one lower-pT jet in addition to the two highest-pT jets. The data used in this search correspond to an integrated luminosity of 103  fb−1 collected with a dedicated trijet trigger during the 2017 and 2018 √s=13  TeV proton-proton collision runs with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search looks for resonant peaks in the b-tagged dijet invariant mass spectrum over a smoothly falling background. The background is estimated with an innovative data-driven method based on orthonormal functions. The observed b-tagged dijet invariant mass spectrum is compatible with the background-only hypothesis. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on a heavy vector-boson production cross section times branching ratio to a pair of b-quarks are derived.G. Aad, ... P. Jackson ... H. Potti ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Measurement of the energy asymmetry in t -bar t j production at 13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment and interpretation in the SMEFT framework

A measurement of the energy asymmetry in jet-associated top-quark pair production is presented using 139fb−1 of data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during pp collisions at s√=13TeV. The observable measures the different probability of top and antitop quarks to have the higher energy as a function of the jet scattering angle with respect to the beam axis. The energy asymmetry is measured in the semileptonic tt¯ decay channel, and the hadronically decaying top quark must have transverse momentum above 350GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects to particle level in three bins of the scattering angle of the associated jet. The measurement agrees with the SM prediction at next-to-leading-order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics in all three bins. In the bin with the largest expected asymmetry, where the jet is emitted perpendicular to the beam, the energy asymmetry is measured to be −0.043 ± 0.020, in agreement with the SM prediction of -0.037 ± 0.003. Interpreting this result in the framework of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), it is shown that the energy asymmetry is sensitive to the top-quark chirality in four-quark operators and is therefore a valuable new observable in global SMEFT fits.G. Aad ... P. Jackson ... A.X. Y. Kong ... J. L. Oliver ... H. Potti ...T.A. Ruggeri ... A.S. Sharma ... E.X.L. Ting ... M.J. White ... et al. (ATLAS Collaboration

Search for a new Z' gauge boson in 4mu events with the ATLAS experiment

Published: July 12, 2023This paper presents a search for a new Z′ vector gauge boson with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using pp collision data collected at s√ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb⁻¹. The new gauge boson Z′ is predicted by Lμ − Lτ models to address observed phenomena that can not be explained by the Standard Model. The search examines the four-muon (4μ) final state, using a deep learning neural network classifier to separate the Z′ signal from the Standard Model background events. The di-muon invariant masses in the 4μ events are used to extract the Z′ resonance signature. No significant excess of events is observed over the predicted background. Upper limits at a 95% confidence level on the Z′ production cross-section times the decay branching fraction of pp → Z′μμ → 4μ are set from 0.31 to 4.3 fb for the Z′ mass ranging from 5 to 81 GeV. The corresponding common coupling strengths, gZ′, of the Z′ boson to the second and third generation leptons above 0.003 – 0.2 have been excluded.G. Aad ... M. Amerl ... E. K. Filmer ... P. Jackson ... A. X. Y. Kong ... H. Potti ... T. A. Ruggeri ... E. X. L. Ting ... M. J. White ... et al. (The ATLAS collaboration

Measurements of the Higgs boson inclusive and differential fiducial cross-sections in the diphoton decay channel with pp collisions at s root = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Published: August 2, 2022A measurement of inclusive and differential fiducial cross-sections for the production of the Higgs boson decaying into two photons is performed using 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at s√ = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The inclusive cross-section times branching ratio, in a fiducial region closely matching the experimental selection, is measured to be 67 ± 6 fb, which is in agreement with the state-of-the-art Standard Model prediction of 64 ± 4 fb. Extrapolating this result to the full phase space and correcting for the branching ratio, the total cross-section for Higgs boson production is estimated to be 58 ± 6 pb. In addition, the cross-sections in four fiducial regions sensitive to various Higgs boson production modes and differential cross-sections as a function of either one or two of several observables are measured. All the measurements are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measured transverse momentum distribution of the Higgs boson is used as an indirect probe of the Yukawa coupling of the Higgs boson to the bottom and charm quarks. In addition, five differential cross-section measurements are used to constrain anomalous Higgs boson couplings to vector bosons in the Standard Model effective field theory framework.The ATLAS collaboration, G. Aad ... P.Jackson ... A.X.Y Kong ... H.Potti ... T.A. Ruggeri ... A.S.Sharma ... E.X.L.Ting ... M.J.White ... et al

Operation and performance of the ATLAS semiconductor tracker in LHC Run 2

The semiconductor tracker (SCT) is one of the tracking systems for charged particles in the ATLAS detector. It consists of 4088 silicon strip sensor modules. During Run 2 (2015–2018) the Large Hadron Collider delivered an integrated luminosity of 156 fb−1 to the ATLAS experiment at a centre-of-mass proton-proton collision energy of 13 TeV. The instantaneous luminosity and pile-up conditions were far in excess of those assumed in the original design of the SCT detector. Due to improvements to the data acquisition system, the SCT operated stably throughout Run 2. It was available for 99.9% of the integrated luminosity and achieved a data-quality efficiency of 99.85%. Detailed studies have been made of the leakage current in SCT modules and the evolution of the full depletion voltage, which are used to study the impact of radiation damage to the modules.The Atlas Collaboration ... G. Aad ... Paul D. Jackson ... Albert X. Kong ... Harish Potti ... Tristan A. Ruggeri ... Martin White ... et al

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

Published: July 20, 2023A 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.G. Aad ... E.K. Filmer ... P. Jackson ... A.X.Y. Kong ... H. Potti ... T.A. Ruggeri ... E.X.L. Ting ... M.J. White ... et al. (The ATLAS collaboration

Search for a new scalar resonance in flavour-changing neutral-current top-quark decays t -> qX (q = u, c), with X -> bb -bar in proton-proton collisions at root = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Published: July 26, 2023A search for flavour-changing neutral-current decays of a top quark into an up-type quark (either up or charm) and a light scalar particle X decaying into a bottom anti-bottom quark pair is presented. The search focuses on top-quark pair production where one top quark decays to qX, with X → bb¯, and the other top quark decays according to the Standard Model, with the W boson decaying leptonically. The final state is thus characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. Events are categorised according to the multiplicity of jets and jets tagged as originating from b-quarks, and a neural network is used to discriminate between signal and background processes. The data analysed correspond to 139 fb⁻¹ of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.019% and 0.062% are derived for the branching fraction B(t → uX) and between 0.018% and 0.078% for the branching fraction B(t → cX), for masses of the scalar particle X between 20 and 160 GeV.G. Aad ... E. K. Filmer ... P. Jackson ... A. X. Y. Kong ... H. Potti ... T. A. Ruggeri ... E. X. L. Ting ... M. J. White ... et al. (The ATLAS collaboration