ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of Z bosons in the l+ l- l '+ l '- and l+ l-nu barnu final states using 139 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(4), 332–39pp.
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.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Evidence for Higgs boson decays to a low-mass dilepton system and a photon in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Lett. B, 819, 136412–22pp.
Abstract: A search for the Higgs boson decaying into a photon and a pair of electrons or muons with an invariant mass m(ll) < 30 GeV is presented. The analysis is performed using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data, produced by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and collected by the ATLAS experiment. Evidence for the H -> ll(gamma) process is found with a significance of 3.2 over the background-only hypothesis, compared to an expected significance of 2.1 for the Standard Model prediction. The best-fit value of the signal-strength parameter, defined as the ratio of the observed signal yield to the one expected in the Standard Model, is μ= 1.5 +/- 0.5. The Higgs boson production cross-section times the H -> ll(gamma) branching ratio for m(ll) < 30 GeV is determined to be 8.7(-2.7)(+2.8) fb.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Search for new phenomena in events with an energetic jet and missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Phys. Rev. D, 103(11), 112006–40pp.
Abstract: Results of a search for new physics in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected in the period 2015-2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Compared to previous publications, in addition to an increase of almost a factor of four in the data size, the analysis implements a number of improvements in the signal selection and the background determination leading to enhanced sensitivity. Events are required to have at least one jet with transverse momentum above 150 GeV and no reconstructed leptons (e, μor tau) or photons. Several signal regions are considered with increasing requirements on the missing transverse momentum starting at 200 GeV. Overall agreement is observed between the number of events in data and the Standard Model predictions. Model-independent 95% confidence-level limits on visible cross sections for new processes are obtained in the range between 736 fb and 0.3 fb. Results are also translated into improved exclusion limits in models with pair-produced weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, large extra spatial dimensions, supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios, axionlike particles, and new scalar particles in dark- energy-inspired models. In addition, the data are translated into bounds on the invisible branching ratio of the Higgs boson.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Search for a heavy Higgs boson decaying into a Z boson and another heavy Higgs boson in the llbb and llWW final states in pp collisions at root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(5), 396–36pp.
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.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Search for charged-lepton-flavour violation in Z-boson decays with the ATLAS detector. Nat. Phys., 17, 819–825.
Abstract: Leptons with essentially the same properties apart from their mass are grouped into three families (or flavours). The number of leptons of each flavour is conserved in interactions, but this is not imposed by fundamental principles. Since the formulation of the standard model of particle physics, the observation of flavour oscillations among neutrinos has shown that lepton flavour is not conserved in neutrino weak interactions. So far, there has been no experimental evidence that this also occurs in interactions between charged leptons. Such an observation would be a sign of undiscovered particles or a yet unknown type of interaction. Here the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN reports a constraint on lepton-flavour-violating effects in weak interactions, searching for Z-boson decays into a tau lepton and another lepton of different flavour with opposite electric charge. The branching fractions for these decays are measured to be less than 8.1 x 10(-6) (e tau) and 9.5 x 10(-6) (mu tau) at the 95% confidence level using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV and 20.3 fb(-1) at root s = 8 TeV. These results supersede the limits from the Large Electron-Positron Collider experiments conducted more than two decades ago.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Test of the universality of τ and μ lepton couplings in W-boson decays with the ATLAS detector. Nat. Phys., 17, 813–818.
Abstract: The standard model of particle physics encapsulates our best current understanding of physics at the smallest scales. A fundamental axiom of this theory is the universality of the couplings of the different generations of leptons to the electroweak gauge bosons. The measurement of the ratio of the decay rate of W bosons to t leptons and muons, R(tau/mu), constitutes an important test of this axiom. Using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, we report a measurement of this quantity from di-leptonic tt events where the top quarks decay into a W boson and a bottom quark. We can distinguish muons originating from W bosons and those originating from an intermediate t lepton through the muon transverse impact parameter and differences in the muon transverse momentum spectra. The measured value of R(tau/mu) is 0.992 +/- 0.013 [+/- 0.007(stat) +/- 0.011(syst)] and is in agreement with the hypothesis of universal lepton couplings as postulated in the standard model. This is the only such measurement from the Large Hadron Collider, so far, and obtains twice the precision of previous measurements.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Search for Displaced Leptons in root s=13 TeV pp Collisions with the ATLAS Detector. Phys. Rev. Lett., 127(5), 051802–21pp.
Abstract: A search for charged leptons with large impact parameters using 139 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV pp collision data from the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented, addressing a long-standing gap in coverage of possible new physics signatures. Results are consistent with the background prediction. This search provides unique sensitivity to long-lived scalar supersymmetric lepton partners (sleptons). For lifetimes of 0.1 ns, selectron, smuon, and stau masses up to 720, 680, and 340 GeV, respectively, are excluded at 95% confidence level, drastically improving on the previous best limits from LEP.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Two-particle azimuthal correlations in photonuclear ultraperipheral Pb plus Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with ATLAS. Phys. Rev. C, 104(1), 014903–31pp.
Abstract: Two-particle long-range azimuthal correlations are measured in photonuclear collisions using 1.7 nb(-1) of 5.02 TeV Pb+Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Candidate events are selected using a dedicated high-multiplicity photonuclear event trigger, a combination of information from the zero-degree calorimeters and forward calorimeters, and from pseudorapidity gaps constructed using calorimeter energy clusters and charged-particle tracks. Distributions of event properties are compared between data and Monte Carlo simulations of photonuclear processes. Two-particle correlation functions are formed using charged-particle tracks in the selected events, and a template-fitting method is employed to subtract the nonflow contribution to the correlation. Significant nonzero values of the second-and third-order flow coefficients are observed and presented as a function of charged-particle multiplicity and transverse momentum. The results are compared with flow coefficients obtained in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions in similar multiplicity ranges, and with theoretical expectations. The unique initial conditions present in this measurement provide a new way to probe the origin of the collective signatures previously observed only in hadronic collisions.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Measurements of Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quarks from vvector boson fusion production with the ATLAS experiment at root s=13 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(6), 537–32pp.
Abstract: The paper presents a measurement of the Standard Model Higgs Boson decaying to b-quark pairs in the vector boson fusion (VBF) production mode. A sample corresponding to 126 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeVproton-proton collision data, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, is analyzed utilizing an adversarial neural network for event classification. The signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model for VBF Higgs production, is measured to be 0.95(-0.36)(+0.38), corresponding to an observed (expected) significance of 2.6 (2.8) standard deviations from the background only hypothesis. The results are additionally combined with an analysis of Higgs bosons decaying to b-quarks, produced via VBF in association with a photon.
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ATLAS Collaboration(Aad, G. et al), Aparisi Pozo, J. A., Bailey, A. J., Cabrera Urban, S., Cardillo, F., Castillo, F. L., et al. (2021). Muon reconstruction and identification efficiency in ATLAS using the full Run 2 pp collision data set at root s = 13 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C, 81(7), 578–44pp.
Abstract: This article documents the muon reconstruction and identification efficiency obtained by the ATLAS experiment for 139 fb-1 of pp collision data at <mml:msqrt>s</mml:msqrt>=13 TeV collected between 2015 and 2018 during Run 2 of the LHC. The increased instantaneous luminosity delivered by the LHC over this period required a reoptimisation of the criteria for the identification of prompt muons. Improved and newly developed algorithms were deployed to preserve high muon identification efficiency with a low misidentification rate and good momentum resolution. The availability of large samples of Z -> μμand J/psi -> μμdecays, and the minimisation of systematic uncertainties, allows the efficiencies of criteria for muon identification, primary vertex association, and isolation to be measured with an accuracy at the per-mille level in the bulk of the phase space, and up to the percent level in complex kinematic configurations. Excellent performance is achieved over a range of transverse momenta from 3 GeV to several hundred GeV, and across the full muon detector acceptance of |eta|<2.7.
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