Abstract: The tracking performance parameters of the ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) as part of the ATLAS inner detector are described in this paper for different data-taking conditions in proton-proton, proton-lead and lead-lead collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The performance is studied using data collected during the first period of LHC operation (Run 1) and is compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The performance of the TRT, operating with two different gas mixtures (xenon-based and argon-based) and its dependence on the TRT occupancy is presented. These studies show that the tracking performance of the TRT is similar for the two gas mixtures and that a significant contribution to the particle momentum resolution is made by the TRT up to high particle densities.

Abstract: A search for direct top squark pair production resulting in events with either a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair with invariant mass compatible with a Z boson or a pair of jets compatible with a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h) is presented. Requirements on the missing transverse momentum, together with additional selections on leptons, jets, jets identified as originating from b-quarks are imposed to target the other decay products of the top squark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 20152016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data with respect to the SM predictions. The results are interpreted in two sets of models. In the first set, direct production of pairs of lighter top squarks ((t) over tilde (1)) with long decay chains involving Z or Higgs bosons is considered. The second set includes direct pair production of the heavier top squark pairs ((t) over tilde (2)) decaying via (t) over tilde (2) -> Z (t) over tilde (1) or (t) over tilde (2) -> h (t) over tilde (1). The results exclude at 95% confidence level (t) over tilde (2) and (t) over tilde (1) masses up to about 800 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous LHC searches.

Abstract: ATLAS measurements of two-particle correlations are presented for root s = 5.02 and 13 TeV pp collisions and for root(NN)-N-s = 5.02 TeV p + Pb collisions at the LHC. The correlation functions are measured as a function of relative azimuthal angle Delta phi, and pseudorapidity separation Delta eta, using charged particles detected within the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.5. Azimuthal modulation in the long-range component of the correlation function, with | Delta eta| > 2, is studied using a template fitting procedure to remove a “back-to-back” contribution to the correlation function that primarily arises from hard-scattering processes. In addition to the elliptic, cos(2 Delta phi), modulation observed in a previous measurement, the pp correlation functions exhibit significant cos(3 Delta phi) and cos(4 Lambda phi) modulation. The Fourier coefficients v(n),(n) associated with the cos (n Lambda phi) modulation of the correlation functions for n = 2-4 are measured as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and charged-particle transverse momentum. The Fourier coefficients are observed to be compatible with cos(n phi) modulation of per-event singleparticle azimuthal angle distributions. The single-particle Fourier coefficients vn are measured as a function of charged-particle multiplicity, and charged-particle transverse momentum for n = 2-4. The integrated luminosities used in this analysis are, 64 nb(-1) for the root s = 13 TeV pp data, 170 nb(-1) for the root s = 5.02 TeV pp data, and 28 nb(-1) for the root(NN)-N-s = 5.02 TeV p + Pb data.