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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Aarrestad, T. et al, Mamuzic, J., & Ruiz de Austri, R. (2022). Benchmark data and model independent event classification for the large hadron collider. SciPost Phys., 12(1), 043–57pp.
Abstract: We describe the outcome of a data challenge conducted as part of the Dark Machines (https://www.darkmachines.org) initiative and the Les Houches 2019 workshop on Physics at TeV colliders. The challenged aims to detect signals of new physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using unsupervised machine learning algorithms. First, we propose how an anomaly score could be implemented to define model-independent signal regions in LHC searches. We define and describe a large benchmark dataset, consisting of > 1 billion simulated LHC events corresponding to 10 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. We then review a wide range of anomaly detection and density estimation algorithms, developed in the context of the data challenge, and we measure their performance in a set of realistic analysis environments. We draw a number of useful conclusions that will aid the development of unsupervised new physics searches during the third run of the LHC, and provide our benchmark dataset for future studies at https://www.phenoMLdata.org. Code to reproduce the analysis is provided at https://github.com/bostdiek/DarkMachines-UnsupervisedChallenge.
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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). Muon reconstruction performance of the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collision data at root s=13 TeV. Eur. Phys. J. C, 76(5), 292–30pp.
Abstract: This article documents the performance of the ATLAS muon identification and reconstruction using the LHC dataset recorded at root s = 13 TeVin 2015. Using a large sample of J/.psi -> μμand Z -> μμdecays from 3.2 fb(-1) of pp collision data, measurements of the reconstruction efficiency, as well as of the momentum scale and resolution, are presented and compared to Monte Carlo simulations. The reconstruction efficiency is measured to be close to 99 % over most of the covered phase space (vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5 and 5 < p(T) < 100 GeV). The isolation efficiency varies between 93 and 100 % depending on the selection applied and on the momentum of the muon. Both efficiencies are well reproduced in simulation. In the central region of the detector, the momentum resolution is measured to be 1.7 % (2.3 %) for muons from J/psi -> μmu(Z -> μmu) decays, and the momentum scale is known with an uncertainty of 0.05 %. In the region vertical bar eta vertical bar > 2.2, the p(T) resolution for muons from Z -> μdecays is 2.9 % while the precision of the momentum scale for low-p(T) muons from J/psi -> μμdecays is about 0.2 %.
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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). Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into b(b)over-bar produced in association with top quarks decaying hadronically in pp collisions at root s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector. J. High Energy Phys., 05(5), 160–51pp.
Abstract: A search for Higgs boson production in association with a pair of top quarks (t (t) over barH) is performed, where the Higgs boson decays to b (b) over bar, and both top quarks decay hadronically. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search selects events with at least six energetic jets and uses a boosted decision tree algorithm to discriminate between signal and Standard Model background. The dominant multijet background is estimated using a dedicated data-driven technique. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, an upper limit of 6.4 (5.4) times the Standard Model cross section is observed (expected) at 95% confidence level. The best-fit value for the signal strength is μ= 1.6 +/- 2.6 times the Standard Model expectation for m(H) = 125 GeV. Combining all t (t) over barH searches carried out by ATLAS at root s = 8 and 7 TeV, an observed (expected) upper limit of 3.1 (1.4) times the Standard Model expectation is obtained at 95% confidence level, with a signal strength μ= 1.7 +/- 0.8.
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