Abstract: The performance of the ATLAS muon trigger system is evaluated with proton-proton (pp) and heavy-ion (HI) collision data collected in Run 2 during 2015-2018 at the Large Hadron Collider. It is primarily evaluated using events containing a pair of muons from the decay of Z bosons to cover the intermediate momentum range between 26 GeV and 100 GeV. Overall, the efficiency of the single-muon triggers is about 68% in the barrel region and 85% in the endcap region. The p(T) range for efficiency determination is extended by using muons from decays of J/psi mesons, W bosons, and top quarks. The performance in HI collision data is measured and shows good agreement with the results obtained in pp collisions. The muon trigger shows uniform and stable performance in good agreement with the prediction of a detailed simulation. Dedicated multi-muon triggers with kinematic selections provide the backbone to beauty, quarkonia, and low-mass physics studies. The design, evolution and performance of these triggers are discussed in detail.

Abstract: The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) employs a trigger system consisting of a first-level hardware trigger (L1) and a software-based high-level trigger. The L1 muon trigger system selects muon candidates, assigns them to the correct LHC bunch crossing and classifies them into one of six transverse-momentum threshold classes. The L1 muon trigger system uses resistive-plate chambers (RPCs) to generate the muon-induced trigger signals in the central (barrel) region of the ATLAS detector. The ATLAS RPCs are arranged in six concentric layers and operate in a toroidal magnetic field with a bending power of 1.5 to 5.5 Tm. The RPC detector consists of about 3700 gas volumes with a total surface area of more than 4000 m(2). This paper reports on the performance of the RPC detector and L1 muon barrel trigger using 60.8 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment in 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Detector and trigger performance are studied using Z boson decays into a muon pair. Measurements of the RPC detector response, efficiency, and time resolution are reported. Measurements of the L1 muon barrel trigger efficiencies and rates are presented, along with measurements of the properties of the selected sample of muon candidates. Measurements of the RPC currents, counting rates and mean avalanche charge are performed using zero-bias collisions. Finally, RPC detector response and efficiency are studied at different high voltage and front-end discriminator threshold settings in order to extrapolate detector response to the higher luminosity expected for the High Luminosity LHC.

Abstract: A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vector-like B quarks, primarily targeting B quark decays into a W boson and a top quark. The search is based on 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum, and multiple jets, of which at least one is b-tagged. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. The 95% confidence level lower limit on the B mass is 1350 GeV assuming a 100% branching ratio to Wt. In the SU(2) singlet scenario, the lower mass limit is 1170 GeV. The 100% branching ratio limits are found to be also applicable to heavy vector-like X production, with charge +5/3, that decay into Wt. This search is also sensitive to a heavy vector-like B quark decaying into other final states (Zb and Hb) and thus mass limits on B production are set as a function of the decay branching ratios.