ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2016). Centrality, rapidity, and transverse momentum dependence of isolated prompt photon production in lead-lead collisions at root S-NN=2.76 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. C, 93(3), 034914–28pp.
Abstract: Prompt photon production in root S-NN = 2.76-TeV Pb + Pb collisions has been measured by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using data collected in 2011 with an integrated luminosity of 0.14 nb(-1). Inclusive photon yields, scaled by the mean nuclear thickness function, are presented as a function of collision centrality and transverse momentum in two pseudorapidity intervals, vertical bar eta vertical bar < 1.37 and 1.52 <= vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.37. The scaled yields in the two pseudorapidity intervals, as well as the ratios of the forward yields to those at midrapidity, are compared to the expectations from next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculations. The measured cross sections agree well with the predictions for proton-proton collisions within statistical and systematic uncertainties. Both the yields and the ratios are also compared to two other pQCD calculations, one which uses the isospin content appropriate to colliding lead nuclei and another which includes nuclear modifications to the nucleon parton distribution functions.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2016). Search for magnetic monopoles and stable particles with high electric charges in 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 93(5), 052009–25pp.
Abstract: A search for highly ionizing particles produced in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV center-of-mass energy is performed by the ATLAS Collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 7.0 fb(-1). A customized trigger significantly increases the sensitivity, permitting a search for such particles with charges and energies beyond what was previously accessible. No events were found in the signal region, leading to production cross section upper limits in the mass range 200-2500 GeV for magnetic monopoles with magnetic charge in the range 0.5g(D) < vertical bar g vertical bar < 2.0g(D), where g(D) is the Dirac charge, and for stable particles with electric charge in the range 10 < vertical bar z vertical bar < 60. Model-dependent limits are presented in given pair-production scenarios, and model-independent limits are presented in fiducial regions of particle energy and pseudorapidity.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., Costa, M. J., et al. (2016). Search for charged Higgs bosons in the H-+/- -> tb decay channel in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV using the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 03(3), 127–48pp.
Abstract: Charged Higgs bosons heavier than the top quark and decaying via H-+/- -> tb are searched for in proton-proton collisions measured with the ATLAS experiment at root s = 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). The production of a charged Higgs boson in association with a top quark, gb -> tH(+/-), is explored in the mass range 200 to 600 GeV using multi-jet final states with one electron or muon. In order to separate the signal from the Standard Model background, analysis techniques combining several kinematic variables are employed. An excess of events above the background only hypothesis is observed across a wide mass range, amounting to up to 2.4 standard deviations. Upper limits are set on the gb -> tH(+/-) production cross section times the branching fraction BR(H-+/- -> tb). Additionally, the complementary s-channel production, qq' -> H-+/-, is investigated through a reinterpretation of W' -> tb searches in ATLAS. Final states with one electron or muon are relevant for H-+/- masses from 0.4 to 2.0 TeV, whereas the all-hadronic final state covers the range 1.5 to 3.0 TeV. In these search channels, no significant excesses from the predictions of the Standard Model are observed, and upper limits are placed on the qq' -> H-+/- production cross section times the branching fraction BR(H-+/- -> tb).
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., Costa, M. J., et al. (2016). Search for anomalous couplings in the Wtb vertex from the measurement of double differential angular decay rates of single top quarks produced in the t-channel with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 04(4), 023–46pp.
Abstract: The electroweak production and subsequent decay of single top quarks is determined by the properties of the Wtb vertex. This vertex can be described by the complex parameters of an effective Lagrangian. An analysis of angular distributions of the decay products of single top quarks produced in the t-channel constrains these parameters simultaneously. The analysis described in this paper uses 4.6 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Two parameters are measured simultaneously in this analysis. The fraction f(1) of decays containing transversely polarised W bosons is measured to be 0.37 +/- 0.07 (stat. circle plus syst.). The phase delta_ between amplitudes for transversely and longitudinally polarised W bosons recoiling against lefthanded b-quarks is measured to be -0.014 pi +/- 0.036 pi (stat. circle plus syst.). The correlation in the measurement of these parameters is 0.15. These values result in two-dimensional limits at the 95% confidence level on the ratio of the complex coupling parameters g(R) and V-L, yielding R-e[g(R)/V-L] is an element of [-0.36; 0.10] and Im[g(R)/V-L] is an element of [-0.17; 0.23] with a correlation of 0.11. The results are in good agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2016). Measurement of the dependence of transverse energy production at large pseudorapidity on the hard-scattering kinematics of proton-proton collisions at root s=2.76 TeV with ATLAS. Phys. Lett. B, 756, 10–28.
Abstract: The relationship between jet production in the central region and the underlying-event activity in a pseudorapidity-separated region is studied in 4.0 pb(-1) of root s = 2.76 TeV pp collision data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The underlying event is characterised through measurements of the average value of the sum of the transverse energy at large pseudorapidity downstream of one of the protons, which are reported here as a function of hard-scattering kinematic variables. The hard scattering is characterised by the average transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the two highest transverse momentum jets in the event. The dijet kinematics are used to estimate, on an event-by-event basis, the scaled longitudinal momenta of the hard-scattered partons in the target and projectile beam-protons moving toward and away from the region measuring transverse energy, respectively. Transverse energy production at large pseudorapidity is observed to decrease with a linear dependence on the longitudinal momentum fraction in the target proton and to depend only weakly on that in the projectile proton. The results are compared to the predictions of various Monte Carlo event generators, which qualitatively reproduce the trends observed in data but generally underpredict the overall level of transverse energy at forward pseudorapidity.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2016). Measurement of the charge asymmetry in highly boosted top-quark pair production in root s=8 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment. Phys. Lett. B, 756, 52–71.
Abstract: In the pp -> t (t) over bar process the angular distributions of top and anti-top quarks are expected to present a subtle difference, which could be enhanced by processes not included in the Standard Model. This Letter presents a measurement of the charge asymmetry in events where the top-quark pair is produced with a large invariant mass. The analysis is performed on 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s=8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, using reconstruction techniques specifically designed for the decay topology of highly boosted top quarks. The charge asymmetry in a fiducial region with large invariant mass of the top-quark pair (m(t (t) over bar) > 0.75 TeV) and an absolute rapidity difference of the top and anti-top quark candidates within -2 vertical bar y(t)vertical bar – vertical bar y(<(t) over bar)vertical bar < 2is measured to be 4.2 +/- 3.2%, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction at next-to-leading order. A differential measurement in three <(t)over bar> mass bins is also presented.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., Costa, M. J., et al. (2016). Evidence for single top-quark production in the s-channel in proton-proton collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector using the Matrix Element Method. Phys. Lett. B, 756, 228–246.
Abstract: This Letter presents evidence for single top-quark production in the s-channel using proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed on events containing one isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum and exactly two b-tagged jets in the final state. The analysed data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). The signal is extracted using a maximum-likelihood fit of a discriminant which is based on the matrix element method and optimized in order to separate single-top-quark s-channel events from the main background contributions, which are top-quark pair production and W boson production in association with heavy-flavour jets. The measurement leads to an observed signal significance of 3.2 standard deviations and a measured cross-section of sigma s = 4.8 +/- 0.8(stat.)(-1.3)(+1.6)(syst.) pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model expectation. The expected significance for the analysis is 3.9 standard deviations.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2016). Probing lepton flavour violation via neutrinoless tau -> 3 μdecays with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(5), 232–25pp.
Abstract: This article presents the sensitivity of the ATLAS experiment to the lepton-flavour-violating decays of tau -> 3 mu. A method utilising the production of t leptons via W -> tau nu decays is used. This method is applied to the sample of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. No event is observed passing the selection criteria, and the observed (expected) upper limit on the tau lepton branching fraction into three muons, Br(tau -> 3 mu), is 3.76 x 10(-7) (3.94 x 10(-7)) at 90 % confidence level.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2016). Search for new phenomena in events with at least three photons collected in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(4), 210–26pp.
Abstract: Results of a search for new phenomena in events with at least three photons are reported. Data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1), were collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed data are well described by the Standard Model. Limits at the 95 % confidence level on new phenomena are presented based on the rate of events in an inclusive signal region and a restricted signal region targeting the rare decay Z -> 3 gamma, as well as di-photon and tri-photon resonance searches. For a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to four photons via a pair of intermediate pseudoscalar particles ( a), limits are found to be sigma xBR( h -> aa) xBR(a -> gamma gamma) 2 < 10(-3) sigma(SM) for 10 GeV < m(a) < 62 GeV. Limits are also presented for Higgs boson-like scalars (H) for m(H) > 125 GeV, and for a Z' decaying to three photons via Z' -> a + gamma -> 3 gamma. Additionally, the observed limit on the branching ratio of the Z boson decay to three photons is found to be BR( Z -> 3 gamma) < 2.2 x 10(-6), a result five times stronger than the previous result from LEP.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Ferrer, A., Fiorini, L., et al. (2016). Measurement of the centrality dependence of the charged-particle pseudorapidity distribution in proton-lead collisions at root s(NN)=5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(4), 199–30pp.
Abstract: The centrality dependence of the mean charged-particle multiplicity as a function of pseudorapidity is measured in approximately 1 μb(-1) of proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Charged particles with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.7 are reconstructed using the ATLAS pixel detector. The p + Pb collision centrality is characterised by the total transverse energy measured in the Pb-going direction of the forward calorimeter. The charged-particle pseudorapidity distributions are found to vary strongly with centrality, with an increasing asymmetry between the proton-going and Pb-going directions as the collisions become more central. Three different estimations of the number of nucleons participating in the p + Pb collision have been carried out using the Glauber model as well as two Glauber-Gribov inspired extensions to the Glauber model. Charged-particle multiplicities per participant pair are found to vary differently for these three models, highlighting the importance of including colour fluctuations in nucleon-nucleon collisions in the modelling of the initial state of p + Pb collisions.
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