Abstract: The results of a search for the direct pair production of top squarks, the supersymmetric partner of the top quark, in final states with one isolated electron or muon, several energetic jets, and missing transverse momentum are reported. The analysis also targets spin-0 mediator models, where the mediator decays into a pair of dark-matter particles and is produced in association with a pair of top quarks. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 fb(-1). A wide range of signal scenarios with different mass-splittings between the top squark, the lightest neutralino and possible intermediate supersymmetric particles are considered, including cases where the W bosons or the top quarks produced in the decay chain are off-shell. No significant excess over the Standard Model prediction is observed. The null results are used to set exclusion limits at 95% confidence level in several supersymmetry benchmark models. For pair-produced top-squarks decaying into top quarks, top-squark masses up to 940 GeV are excluded. Stringent exclusion limits are also derived for all other considered top-squark decay scenarios. For the spin-0 mediator models, upper limits are set on the visible cross-section.

Abstract: Jet substructure observables have significantly extended the search program for physics beyond the standard model at the Large Hadron Collider. The state-of-the-art tools have been motivated by theoretical calculations, but there has never been a direct comparison between data and calculations of jet substructure observables that are accurate beyond leading-logarithm approximation. Such observables are significant not only for probing the collinear regime of QCD that is largely unexplored at a hadron collider, but also for improving the understanding of jet substructure properties that are used in many studies at the Large Hadron Collider. This Letter documents a measurement of the first jet substructure quantity at a hadron collider to be calculated at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm accuracy. The normalized, differential cross section is measured as a function of log(10)rho(2), where rho is the ratio of the soft-drop mass to the ungroomed jet transverse momentum. This quantity is measured in dijet events from 32.9 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector. The data are unfolded to correct for detector effects and compared to precise QCD calculations and leading-logarithm particle-level Monte Carlo simulations.

Abstract: measurement of the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of dijet azimuthal decorrelations is presented, using the quantity R-Delta phi. The quantity R-Delta phi specifies the fraction of the inclusive dijet events in which the azimuthal opening angle of the two jets with the highest transverse momenta is less than a given value of the parameter Delta phi(max). The quantity R-Delta phi is measured in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV as a function of the dijet rapidity interval, the event total scalar transverse momentum, and Delta phi(max). The measurement uses an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Predictions of a perturbative QCD calculation at next-to-leading order in the strong coupling with corrections for nonperturbative effects are compared to the data. The theoretical predictions describe the data in the whole kinematic region. The data are used to determine the strong coupling alpha(S) and to study its running for momentum transfers from 260 GeV to above 1.6 TeV. Analysis that combines data at all momentum transfers results in alpha(S) (m(Z)) = 0.1127(- 0.0027) (+0.0063).