Abstract: Results of a measurement of dimuon photoproduction in nonultraperipheral Pb + Pb collisions at root sNN = 5.02 TeV are presented. The measurement uses ATLAS data from the 2015 and 2018 Pb + Pb data-taking periods at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 1.94 nb-1. The gamma gamma -> mu+mu- pairs are identified via selections on pair momentum asymmetry and acoplanarity. Differential cross sections for dimuon production are measured in different centrality, average muon momentum, and pair rapidity intervals as functions of acoplanarity and k perpendicular to, the transverse momentum kick of one muon relative to the other. Measurements are also made as a function of the rapidity separation of the muons and the angle of the muon pair relative to the second-order event plane to test whether magnetic fields generated in the quark-gluon plasma affect the measured muons. A prior observation of a centrality-dependent broadening of the acoplanarity distribution is confirmed. Furthermore, the improved precision of the measurement reveals a depletion in the number of pairs having small acoplanarity or k perpendicular to values in more central collisions. The acoplanarity distributions in a given centrality interval are observed to vary with the mean pT of the muons in the pair, but the k perpendicular to distributions do not. Comparisons with recent theoretical predictions are made. The predicted trends associated with effects of magnetic fields on the dimuons are not observed.

Abstract: A search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the b (b) over barb (b) over bar final state is presented. The analysis uses 126 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, and targets both the gluon-gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion production modes. No evidence of the signal is found and the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 5.4 (8.1) times the Standard Model predicted cross section at 95% confidence level. Constraints are placed on modifiers to the HHH and HHVV couplings. The observed (expected) 2 sigma constraints on the HHH coupling modifier, kappa(lambda), are determined to be [-3.5, 11.3] ([-5.4, 11.4]), while the corresponding constraints for the HHVV coupling modifier, kappa(2V), are [-0.0, 2.1] ([-0.1, 2.1]). In addition, constraints on relevant coefficients are derived in the context of the Standard Model effective field theory and Higgs effective field theory, and upper limits on the HH production cross section are placed in seven Higgs effective field theory benchmark scenarios.

Abstract: Measurements of the suppression and correlations of dijets is performed using 3µb−1 of Xe+Xe data at √sNN=5.44 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Dijets with jets reconstructed using the R=0.4 anti-kt algorithm are measured differentially in jet pT over the range of 32 to 398 GeV and the centrality of the collisions. Significant dijet momentum imbalance is found in the most central Xe+Xe collisions, which decreases in more peripheral collisions. Results from the measurement of per-pair normalized and absolutely normalized dijet pT balance are compared with previous Pb+Pb measurements at √sNN=5.02 TeV. The differences between the dijet suppression in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb are further quantified by the ratio of pair nuclear-modification factors. The results are found to be consistent with those measured in Pb+Pb data when compared in classes of the same event activity and when taking into account the difference between the center-of-mass energies of the initial parton scattering process in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions. These results should provide input for a better understanding of the role of energy density, system size, path length, and fluctuations in the parton energy loss.

Abstract: The first evidence for the Higgs boson decay to a Z boson and a photon is presented, with a statistical significance of 3.4 standard deviations. The result is derived from a combined analysis of the searches performed by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations with proton -proton collision datasets collected at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) from 2015 to 2018. These correspond to integrated luminosities of around 140 fb-1 for each experiment, at a center -of -mass energy of 13 TeV. The measured signal yield is 2.2 +/- 0.7 times the standard model prediction, and agrees with the theoretical expectation within 1.9 standard deviations.

Abstract: The ATLAS experiment relies on real-time hadronic jet reconstruction and b-tagging to record fully hadronic events containing b-jets. These algorithms require track reconstruction, which is computationally expensive and could overwhelm the high-level-trigger farm, even at the reduced event rate that passes the ATLAS first stage hardware-based trigger. In LHC Run 3, ATLAS has mitigated these computational demands by introducing a fast neural-network-based b-tagger, which acts as a low-precision filter using input from hadronic jets and tracks. It runs after a hardware trigger and before the remaining high-level-trigger reconstruction. This design relies on the negligible cost of neural-network inference as compared to track reconstruction, and the cost reduction from limiting tracking to specific regions of the detector. In the case of Standard Model HH -> b (b) over barb (b) over bar, a key signature relying on b-jet triggers, the filter lowers the input rate to the remaining high-level trigger by a factor of five at the small cost of reducing the overall signal efficiency by roughly 2%.