Abstract: Several improvements to the ATLAS triggers used to identify jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) were implemented for data-taking during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider from 2016 to 2018. These changes include reconfiguring the b-jet trigger software to improve primary-vertex finding and allow more stable running in conditions with high pile-up, and the implementation of the functionality needed to run sophisticated taggers used by the offline reconstruction in an online environment. These improvements yielded an order of magnitude better light-flavour jet rejection for the same b-jet identification efficiency compared to the performance in Run 1 (2011-2012). The efficiency to identify b-jets in the trigger, and the conditional efficiency for b-jets that satisfy offline b-tagging requirements to pass the trigger are also measured. Correction factors are derived to calibrate the b-tagging efficiency in simulation to match that observed in data. The associated systematic uncertainties are substantially smaller than in previous measurements. In addition, b-jet triggers were operated for the first time during heavy-ion data-taking, using dedicated triggers that were developed to identify semileptonic b-hadron decays by selecting events with geometrically overlapping muons and jets.

Abstract: This article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the WW*(-> e nu μnu)jj final state, based on a dataset corresponding to 36.1fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon-gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs-gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of tan (alpha) = 0.0 +/- 0.4(stat.) +/- 0.3(syst.) is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised W and Z bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be a(L) = 0.91(-0.18)(+0.10)(stat.)(-0.17)(+0.09)(syst.) and a(T) = 1.2 +/- 0.4(stat.)(-0.3)(+0.2)(syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in kappa(VV) = 0.91(-0.18)(+0.10)(stat.)(-0.17)(+0.09)(syst.) and epsilon(VV) = 0.13(-0.20)(+0.28)(stat.)(-0.10)(+0.08)(syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.

Abstract: A search is presented for four-top-quark production using an integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected if they contain a same-sign lepton pair or at least three leptons (electrons or muons). Jet multiplicity, jet flavour and event kinematics are used to separate signal from the background through a multivariate discriminant, and dedicated control regions are used to constrain the dominant backgrounds. The four-top-quark production cross section is measured to be 24-6+7 fb. This corresponds to an observed (expected) significance with respect to the background-only hypothesis of 4.3 (2.4) standard deviations and provides evidence for this process.

Abstract: A search is presented for new phenomena in events characterised by high jet multiplicity, no leptons (electrons or muons), and four or more jets originating from the fragmentation of b-quarks (b-jets). The search uses 139fb(-1)of s root = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider during Run 2. The dominant Standard Model background originates from multijet production and is estimated using a data-driven technique based on an extrapolation from events with low b-jet multiplicity to the high b-jet multiplicities used in the search. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed and 95% confidence-level limits that constrain simplified models of R-parity-violating supersymmetry are determined. The exclusion limits reach 950 GeV in top-squark mass in the models considered.

Abstract: The yield of charged particles opposite to a Z boson with large transverse momentum (p(T)) is measured in 260 pb(-1) of pp and 1.7 nb(-1) of Pb + Pb collision data at 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The Z boson tag is used to select hard-scattered partons with specific kinematics, and to observe how their showers are modified as they propagate through the quarkgluon plasma created in Pb + Pb collisions. Compared with pp collisions, charged-particle yields in Pb + Pb collisions show significant modifications as a function of charged-particle p(T) in a way that depends on event centrality and Z boson p(T). The data are compared with a variety of theoretical calculations and provide new information about the medium-induced energy loss of partons in a p(T) regime difficult to measure through other channels.