Abstract: Flavor-changing neutral currents are not present in the Standard Model at tree level and are suppressed in loop processes by the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix; the corresponding rates for top quark decay processes are experimentally unobservable. Extensions of the Standard Model can generate new flavor-changing neutral current processes, leading to signals which, if observed, would be unambiguous evidence of new interactions. A data set conesponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for top quarks decaying to up or charm quarks with the emission of a Higgs boson, with subsequent Higgs boson decay to final states with at least one electron or muon. No signal is observed and limits on the branching fractions B(t -> Hc) < 0.16% and B(t -> Hu) < 0.19% at 95% confidence level are obtained (with expected limits of 0.15% in both cases).

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.

Abstract: A detailed study of multiparticle azimuthal correlations is presented using pp data at root s = 5.02 and 13 TeV, and p+Pb data at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The azimuthal correlations are probed using four-particle cumulants c(n){4} and flow coefficients v(n){4} = (-c(n){4})(1/4) for n = 2 and 3, with the goal of extracting long-range multiparticle azimuthal correlation signals and suppressing the short-range correlations. The values of c(n){4} are obtained as a function of the average number of charged particles per event, < N-ch >, using the recently proposed two-subevent and three-subevent cumulant methods, and compared with results obtained with the standard cumulant method. The standard method is found to be strongly biased by short-range correlations, which originate mostly from jetswith a positive contribution to c(n){4}. The threesubevent method, on the other hand, is found to be least sensitive to short-range correlations. The three-subevent method gives a negative c(2){4}, and therefore a well-defined v(2){4}, nearly independent of < N-ch >, which implies that the long-range multiparticle azimuthal correlations persist to events with low multiplicity. Furthermore, v(2){4} is found to be smaller than the v(2){2} measured using the two-particle correlation method, as expected for long-range collective behavior. Finally, the measured values of v(2){4} and v(2){2} are used to estimate the number of sources relevant for the initial eccentricity in the collision geometry. The results based on the subevent cumulant technique provide direct evidence, in small collision systems, for a long-range collectivity involving many particles distributed across a broad rapidity interval.