Abstract: This paper presents the design of an optical link card developed in the frame of the R&D activities for the phase 2 upgrade of the TileCal experiment. This board, that is part of the evaluation of different technologies for the final choice in the next years, is designed as a mezzanine that can work independently or be plugged in the optical multiplexer board of the TileCal backend electronics. It includes two SNAP 12 optical connectors able to transmit and receive up to 75 Gb/s and one SFP optical connector for lower speeds and compatibility with existing hardware as the read out driver. All processing is done in a Stratix II GX field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Details are given on the hardware design, including signal and power integrity analysis, needed when working with these high data rates and on firmware development to obtain the best performance of the FPGA signal transceivers and for the use of the GBT protocol.

Abstract: This paper presents the application of a variety of techniques to study jet substructure. The performance of various modified jet algorithms, or jet grooming techniques, for several jet types and event topologies is investigated for jets with transverse momentum larger than 300 GeV. Properties of jets subjected to the mass-drop filtering, trimming, and pruning algorithms are found to have a reduced sensitivity to multiple proton-proton interactions, are more stable at high luminosity and improve the physics potential of searches for heavy boosted objects. Studies of the expected discrimination power of jet mass and jet substructure observables in searches for new physics are also presented. Event samples enriched in boosted W and Z bosons and top-quark pairs are used to study both the individual jet invariant mass scales and the efficacy of algorithms to tag boosted hadronic objects. The analyses presented use the full 2011 ATLAS dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 +/- 0.1 fb(-1) from proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV.

Abstract: This paper presents studies of Bose-Einstein correlations (BEC) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using data from the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data were collected in a special low-luminosity configuration with a minimum-bias trigger and a high-multiplicity track trigger, accumulating integrated luminosities of 151 μb(-1) and 8.4 nb(-1), respectively. The BEC are measured for pairs of like-sign charged particles, each with vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5, for two kinematic ranges: the first with particle pr > 100 MeV and the second with particle pr > 500 MeV. The BEC parameters, characterizing the source radius and particle correlation strength, are investigated as functions of charged-particle multiplicity (up to 300) and average transverse momentum of the pair (up to 1.5 GeV). The double-differential dependence on charged-particle multiplicity and average transverse momentum of the pair is also studied. The BEC radius is found to be independent of the charged-particle multiplicity for high charged-particle multiplicity (above 100), confirming a previous observation at lower energy. This saturation occurs independent of the transverse momentum of the pair.

Abstract: This paper presents results of searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in models with compressed mass spectra. The searches use 139 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with missing transverse momentum and two same-flavor, oppositely charged, low-transverse-momentum leptons are selected, and are further categorized by the presence of hadronic activity from initial-state radiation or a topology compatible with vector-boson fusion processes. The data are found to be consistent with predictions from the Standard Model. The results are interpreted using simplified models of R-parity-conserving supersymmetry in which the lightest supersymmetric partner is a neutralino with a mass similar to the lightest chargino, the second-to-lightest neutralino, or the slepton. Lower limits on the masses of charginos in different simplified models range from 193 to 240 GeV for moderate mass splittings, and extend down to mass splittings of 1.5 to 2.4 GeV at the LEP chargino bounds (92.4 GeV). Similar lower limits on degenerate light-flavor sleptons extend up to masses of 251 GeV and down to mass splittings of 550 MeV. Constraints on vector-boson fusion production of electroweak SUSY states are also presented.

Abstract: This paper presents measurements of W +/- Z production cross sections in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV. The data were collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1fb-1. The W +/- Z candidate events are reconstructed using leptonic decay modes of the gauge bosons into electrons and muons. The measured inclusive cross section in the detector fiducial region for a single leptonic decay mode is sigma W +/- Zfid.=63.7fb, reproduced by the next-to-next-to-leading-order Standard Model prediction of 61.5-1.3+1.4fb. Cross sections for W+Z and W-Z production and their ratio are presented as well as differential cross sections for several kinematic observables. An analysis of angular distributions of leptons from decays of W and Z bosons is performed for the first time in pair-produced events in hadronic collisions, and integrated helicity fractions in the detector fiducial region are measured for the W and Z bosons separately. Of particular interest, the longitudinal helicity fraction of pair-produced vector bosons is also measured.