Abstract: A search for the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of charm quarks is presented. The analysis uses proton- proton collisions to target the production of a Higgs boson in association with a leptonically decaying W or Z boson. The dataset delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). Flavour-tagging algorithms are used to identify jets originating from the hadronisation of charm quarks. The analysis method is validated with the simultaneous measurement of WW, WZ and ZZ production, with observed (expected) significances of 2.6 (2.2) standard deviations above the background-only prediction for the (W/Z)Z(-> c (c) over bar) process and 3.8 (4.6) standard deviations for the (W/Z)W(-> cq) process. The (WIZ)H(-> c (c) over bar) search yields an observed (expected) upper limit of 26 (31) times the predicted Standard Model crosssection times branching fraction for a Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV, corresponding to an observed (expected) constraint on the charm Yukawa coupling modifier vertical bar k(c)vertical bar < 8.5 (12.4), at the 95% confidence level. A combination with the ATLAS (W/Z)H, H -> b<(b)over bar> analysis is performed, allowing the ratio k(c)/k(b) to be constrained to less than 4.5 at the 95% confidence level, smaller than the ratio of the b- and c-quark masses, and therefore determines the Higgs-charm coupling to be weaker than the Higgs-bottom coupling at the 95% confidence level.

Abstract: The flavour-tagging algorithms developed by the AvTLAS Collaboration and used to analyse its dataset of root s = 13 TeV pp collisions from Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider are presented. These new tagging algorithms are based on recurrent and deep neural networks, and their performance is evaluated in simulated collision events. These developments yield considerable improvements over previous jet-flavour identification strategies. At the 77% b-jet identification efficiency operating point, light-jet (charm-jet) rejection factors of 170 (5) are achieved in a sample of simulated Standard Model t (t) over bar events; similarly, at a c-jet identification efficiency of 30%, a light-jet (b-jet) rejection factor of 70 (9) is obtained.

Abstract: The exclusive production of pion pairs in the process pp -> pp pi(+)pi(-) has been measured at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, using 80 μb(-1) of low-luminosity data. The pion pairs were detected in the ATLAS central detector while outgoing protons were measured in the forwardATLASALFAdetector system. This represents the first use of proton tagging to measure an exclusive hadronic final state at the LHC. Across-sectionmeasurement is performed in two kinematic regions defined by the proton momenta, the pion rapidities and transverse momenta, and the pion-pion invariant mass. Cross-section values of 4.8 +/- 1.0 (stat)(-0.2) (+0.3)(syst) μb and 9 +/- 6 (stat)(-2)(+2) (syst) μb are obtained in the two regions; they are compared with theoretical models and provide a demonstration of the feasibility of measurements of this type.