ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Costa, M. J., Fernandez Martinez, P., et al. (2015). Search for massive, long-lived particles using multitrack displaced vertices or displaced lepton pairs in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 92(7), 072004–37pp.
Abstract: Many extensions of the Standard Model posit the existence of heavy particles with long lifetimes. This article presents the results of a search for events containing at least one long-lived particle that decays at a significant distance from its production point into two leptons or into five or more charged particles. This analysis uses a data sample of proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) collected in 2012 by the ATLAS detector operating at the Large Hadron Collider. No events are observed in any of the signal regions, and limits are set on model parameters within supersymmetric scenarios involving R-parity violation, split supersymmetry, and gauge mediation. In some of the search channels, the trigger and search strategy are based only on the decay products of individual long-lived particles, irrespective of the rest of the event. In these cases, the provided limits can easily be reinterpreted in different scenarios.
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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. (2015). Measurements of the top quark branching ratios into channels with leptons and quarks with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 92(7), 072005–31pp.
Abstract: Measurements of the branching ratios of top quark decays into leptons and jets using events with t (t) over bar ( top antitop) pairs are reported. Events were recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The collected data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1). The measured top quark branching ratios agree with the Standard Model predictions within the measurement uncertainties of a few percent.
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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. (2015). Search for new light gauge bosons in Higgs boson decays to four-lepton final states in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Phys. Rev. D, 92(9), 092001–30pp.
Abstract: This paper presents a search for Higgs bosons decaying to four leptons, either electrons or muons, via one or two light exotic gauge bosons Z(d), H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l or H -> Z(d)Z(d) -> 4l. The search was performed using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb(-1) at the center-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are well described by the Standard Model prediction. Upper bounds on the branching ratio of H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l and on the kinetic mixing parameter between the Z(d) and the Standard Model hypercharge gauge boson are set in the range (1-9) x 10(-5) and (4-17) x 10(-2) respectively, at 95% confidence level assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of H -> ZZ* -> 4l, for Z(d) masses between 15 and 55 GeV. Upper bounds on the effective mass mixing parameter between the Z and the Z(d) are also set using the branching ratio limits in the H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l search, and are in the range (1.5-8.7) x 10(-4) for 15 < m(Zd) < 35 GeV. Upper bounds on the branching ratio of H -> Z(d)Z(d) -> 4l and on the Higgs portal coupling parameter, controlling the strength of the coupling of the Higgs boson to dark vector bosons are set in the range (2-3) x 10(-5) and (1-10) x 10(-4) respectively, at 95% confidence level assuming the Standard Model Higgs boson production cross sections, for Z(d) masses between 15 and 60 GeV.
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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. (2015). Searches for Higgs boson pair production in the hh -> bb tau tau, gamma gamma WW*, gamma gamma bb, bbbb channels with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 92(9), 092004–30pp.
Abstract: Searches for both resonant and nonresonant Higgs boson pair production are performed in the hh -> bb tau tau, gamma gamma WW* final states using 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No evidence of their production is observed and 95% confidence-level upper limits on the production cross sections are set. These results are then combined with the published results of the hh -> gamma gamma bb, bbbb analyses. An upper limit of 0.69 (0.47) pb on the nonresonant hh production is observed (expected), corresponding to 70 (48) times the SM gg -> hh cross section. For production via narrow resonances, cross-section limits of hh production from a heavy Higgs boson decay are set as a function of the heavy Higgs boson mass. The observed (expected) limits range from 2.1 (1.1) pb at 260 GeV to 0.011 (0.018) pb at 1000 GeV. These results are interpreted in the context of two simplified scenarios of the Minimal Supersymmetric 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. (2015). Search for pair production of a new heavy quark that decays into a W boson and a light quark in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 92(11), 112007–28pp.
Abstract: A search is presented for pair production of a new heavy quark (Q) that decays into aW boson and a light quark (q) in the final state where one W boson decays leptonically (to an electron or muon plus a neutrino) and the other W boson decays hadronically. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. No evidence of Q (Q) over bar production is observed. New chiral quarks with masses below 690 GeVare excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming BR(Q -> Wq) = 1. Results are also interpreted in the context of vectorlike quark models, resulting in the limits on the mass of a vectorlike quark in the two-dimensional plane of BR(Q -> Wq) versus BR(Q -> Hq).
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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). Measurement of the correlation between the polar angles of leptons from top quark decays in the helicity basis at root s=7 TeV using the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 93(1), 012002–23pp.
Abstract: A measurement of the correlations between the polar angles of leptons from the decay of pair-produced t and (t) over bar quarks in the helicity basis is reported, using proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1) at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV collected during 2011. Candidate events are selected in the dilepton topology with large missing transverse momentum and at least two jets. The angles theta(1) and theta(2) between the charged leptons and the direction of motion of the parent quarks in the t (t) over bar rest frame are sensitive to the spin information, and the distribution of cos theta(1).cos theta(2) is sensitive to the spin correlation between the t and (t) over bar quarks. The distribution is unfolded to parton level and compared to the next-to-leading order prediction. A good agreement is observed.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aaboud, M. et al), Alvarez Piqueras, D., Barranco Navarro, L., Cabrera Urban, S., Castillo Gimenez, V., Cerda Alberich, L., et al. (2017). Evidence for light-by-light scattering in heavy-ion collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Nat. Phys., 13(9), 852–858.
Abstract: Light-by-light scattering (gamma gamma -> gamma gamma) is a quantum-mechanical process that is forbidden in the classical theory of electrodynamics. This reaction is accessible at the Large Hadron Collider thanks to the large electromagnetic field strengths generated by ultra-relativistic colliding lead ions. Using 480 μb(-1) of lead-lead collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV by the ATLAS detector, here we report evidence for light-by-light scattering. A total of 13 candidate events were observed with an expected background of 2.6 +/- 0.7 events. After background subtraction and analysis corrections, the fiducial cross-section of the process Pb + Pb (gamma gamma) -> Pb-(center dot) + Pb-(center dot) gamma gamma, for photon transverse energy E-T > 3 GeV, photon absolute pseudorapidity vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.4, diphoton invariant mass greater than 6 GeV, diphoton transverse momentum lower than 2 GeV and diphoton acoplanarity below 0.01, is measured to be 70 +/- 24 (stat.) +/- 17 (syst.) nb, which is in agreement with the standard model predictions.
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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. (2015). Modelling Z -> ττ processes in ATLAS with τ-embedded Z -> μμ data. J. Instrum., 10, P09018–41pp.
Abstract: This paper describes the concept, technical realisation and validation of a largely data-driven method to model events with Z -> tau tau decays. In Z -> μμevents selected from proton-proton collision data recorded at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012, the Z decay muons are replaced by tau leptons from simulated Z -> tau tau decays at the level of reconstructed tracks and calorimeter cells. The tau lepton kinematics are derived from the kinematics of the original muons. Thus, only the well-understood decays of the Z boson and tau leptons as well as the detector response to the tau decay products are obtained from simulation. All other aspects of the event, such as the Z boson and jet kinematics as well as effects from multiple interactions, are given by the actual data. This so-called tau-embedding method is particularly relevant for Higgs boson searches and analyses in tau tau final states, where Z -> tau tau decays constitute a large irreducible background that cannot be obtained directly from data control samples. In this paper, the relevant concepts are discussed based on the implementation used in the ATLAS Standard Model H -> tau tau analysis of the full datataset recorded during 2011 and 2012.
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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). Performance of b-jet identification in the ATLAS experiment. J. Instrum., 11, P04008–126pp.
Abstract: The identification of jets containing b hadrons is important for the physics programme of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Several algorithms to identify jets containing b hadrons are described, ranging from those based on the reconstruction of an inclusive secondary vertex or the presence of tracks with large impact parameters to combined tagging algorithms making use of multi-variate discriminants. An independent b-tagging algorithm based on the reconstruction of muons inside jets as well as the b-tagging algorithm used in the online trigger are also presented. The b-jet tagging efficiency, the c-jet tagging efficiency and the mistag rate for light flavour jets in data have been measured with a number of complementary methods. The calibration results are presented as scale factors defined as the ratio of the efficiency (or mistag rate) in data to that in simulation. In the case of b jets, where more than one calibration method exists, the results from the various analyses have been combined taking into account the statistical correlation as well as the correlation of the sources of systematic uncertainty.
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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). Beam-induced and cosmic-ray backgrounds observed in the ATLAS detector during the LHC 2012 proton-proton running period. J. Instrum., 11, P05013–78pp.
Abstract: This paper discusses various observations on beam-induced and cosmic-ray backgrounds in the ATLAS detector during the LHC 2012 proton-proton run. Building on published results based on 2011 data, the correlations between background and residual pressure of the beam vacuum are revisited. Ghost charge evolution over 2012 and its role for backgrounds are evaluated. New methods to monitor ghost charge with beam-gas rates are presented and observations of LHC abort gap population by ghost charge are discussed in detail. Fake jets from colliding bunches and from ghost charge are analysed with improved methods, showing that ghost charge in individual radio-frequency buckets of the LHC can be resolved. Some results of two short periods of dedicated cosmic-ray background data-taking are shown; in particular cosmic-ray muon induced fake jet rates are compared to Monte Carlo simulations and to the fake jet rates from beam background. A thorough analysis of a particular LHC fill, where abnormally high background was observed, is presented. Correlations between backgrounds and beam intensity losses in special fills with very high beta* are studied.
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