Abstract: A search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of Z bosons leading to l+l-l ' +l '- and l+l-nu nu <overbar></mml:mover> final states, where l stands for either an electron or a muon, is presented. The search uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected from 2015 to 2018 that corresponds to the integrated luminosity of 139 fb<mml:mo>-1 recorded by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. Different mass ranges spanning 200 GeV to 2000 GeV for the hypothetical resonances are considered, depending on the final state and model. In the absence of a significant observed excess, the results are interpreted as upper limits on the production cross section of a spin-0 or spin-2 resonance. The upper limits for the spin-0 resonance are translated to exclusion contours in the context of Type-I and Type-II two-Higgs-doublet models, and the limits for the spin-2 resonance are used to constrain the Randall-Sundrum model with an extra dimension giving rise to spin-2 graviton excitations.

Abstract: A search is presented for the production of a single top quark via left-handed flavour-changing neutralcurrent (FCNC) interactions of a top quark, a gluon and an up or charm quark. Two production processes are considered: u + g -> t and c + g -> t. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). Events with exactly one electron or muon, exactly one b-tagged jet and missing transverse momentum are selected, resembling the decay products of a singly produced top quark. Neural networks based on kinematic variables differentiate between events from the two signal processes and events from background processes. The measured data are consistent with the background-only hypothesis, and limits are set on the production cross-sections of the signal processes: sigma(u + g -> t) x B(t -> Wb) x B(W -> l nu) < 3.0 pb and sigma(c + g -> t) xB(t -> Wb) xB(W -> l nu) < 4.7pb at the 95% confidence level, with B(W -> l nu) = 0.325 being the sum of branching ratios of all three leptonic decay modes of the W boson. Based on the framework of an effective field theory, the cross-section limits are translated into limits on the strengths of the tug and tcg couplings occurring in the theory: vertical bar C-uG(ut)vertical bar Lambda(2) < 0.057 TeV-2 and vertical bar C-uG(ct)vertical bar Lambda(2) < 0.14 TeV-2. These bounds correspond to limits on the branching ratios of FCNC-induced top-quark decays: B(t -> u + g) < 0.61 x 10(-4) and B(t -> c + g) < 3.7 x 10(-4).

Abstract: A measurement of the energy asymmetry in jet-associated top-quark pair production is presented using 139 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV. The observable measures the different probability of top and antitop quarks to have the higher energy as a function of the jet scattering angle with respect to the beam axis. The energy asymmetry is measured in the semileptonic t (t) over bar decay channel, and the hadronically decaying top quark must have transverse momentum above 350 GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects to particle level in three bins of the scattering angle of the associated jet. The measurement agrees with the SM prediction at next-to-leading-order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics in all three bins. In the bin with the largest expected asymmetry, where the jet is emitted perpendicular to the beam, the energy asymmetry is measured to be -0.043 +/- 0.020, in agreement with the SM prediction of -0.037 +/- 0.003. Interpreting this result in the framework of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), it is shown that the energy asymmetry is sensitive to the top-quark chirality in four-quark operators and is therefore a valuable new observable in global SMEFT fits.

Abstract: A search for a heavy neutral Higgs boson, A, decaying into a Z boson and another heavy Higgs boson, H, is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) from proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search considers the Z boson decaying into electrons or muons and the H boson into a pair of b-quarks or W bosons. The mass range considered is 230-800 GeV for the A boson and 130-700 GeV for the H boson. The data are in good agreement with the background predicted by the Standard Model, and therefore 95% confidence-level upper limits for sigma x B( A -> ZH) x B(H -> bb or H -> WW) are set. The upper limits are in the range 0.0062-0.380 pb for the H. bb channel and in the range 0.023-8.9 pb for the H -> WW channel. An interpretation of the results in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models is also given.

Abstract: This paper presents a measurement of b-jet production in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurement uses 260 pb(-1) of pp collisions collected in 2017 and 1.4 nb(-1) of Pb+Pb collisions collected in 2018. In both collision systems, jets are reconstructed via the anti-kt algorithm. The b-jets are identified from a sample of jets containing muons from the semileptonic decay of b-quarks using template fits of the muon momentum relative to the jet axis. In pp collisions, b-jets are reconstructed for radius parameters R=0.2 and R=0.4, and only R=0.2 jets are used in Pb+Pb collisions. For comparison, inclusive R=0.2 jets are also measured using 1.7 nb(-1) of Pb+Pb collisions collected in 2018 and the same pp collision data as the b-jet measurement. The nuclear modification factor, RAA, is calculated for both b-jets and inclusive jets with R=0.2 over the transverse momentum range of 80-290 GeV. The nuclear modification factor for b-jets decreases from peripheral to central collisions. The ratio of the b-jet RAA to inclusive jet RAA is also presented and suggests that the RAA for b-jets is larger than that for inclusive jets in central Pb+Pb collisions. The measurements are compared with theoretical calculations and suggest a role for mass and colour-charge effects in partonic energy loss in heavy-ion collisions.