Abstract: A search for new-physics resonances decaying into a lepton and a jet performed by the ATLAS experiment is presented. Scalar leptoquarks pair-produced inppcollisions at root s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider are considered using an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1), corresponding to the full Run 2 dataset. They are searched for in events with two electrons or two muons and two or more jets, including jets identified as arising from the fragmentation ofc- orb-quarks. The observed yield in each channel is consistent with the Standard Model background expectation. Leptoquarks with masses below 1.8 TeV and 1.7 TeV are excluded in the electron and muon channels, respectively, assuming a branching ratio into a charged lepton and a quark of 100%, with minimal dependence on the quark flavour. Upper limits on the aforementioned branching ratio are also given as a function of the leptoquark mass.

Abstract: Results of a search for new particles decaying into eight or more jets and moderate missing transverse momentum are presented. The analysis uses 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at <mml:msqrt>s</mml:msqrt> = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018. The selection rejects events containing isolated electrons or muons, and makes requirements according to the number of b-tagged jets and the scalar sum of masses of large-radius jets. The search extends previous analyses both in using a larger dataset and by employing improved jet and missing transverse momentum reconstruction methods which more cleanly separate signal from background processes. No evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model is found. The results are interpreted in the context of supersymmetry-inspired simplified models, significantly extending the limits on the gluino mass in those models. In particular, limits on the gluino mass are set at 2 TeV when the lightest neutralino is nearly massless in a model assuming a two-step cascade decay via the lightest chargino and second-lightest neutralino.

Abstract: The QCD axion is one of the best motivated dark matter candidates. The misalignment mechanism is well known to produce an abundance of the QCD axion consistent with dark matter for an axion decay constant of order 10(12) GeV. For a smaller decay constant, the QCD axion, with Peccei-Quinn symmetry broken during inflation, makes up only a fraction of dark matter unless the axion field starts oscillating very close to the top of its potential, in a scenario called “large-misalignment”. In this scenario, QCD axion dark matter with a small axion decay constant is partially comprised of very dense structures. We present a simple dynamical model realising the large-misalignment mechanism. During inflation, the axion classically rolls down its potential approaching its minimum. After inflation, the Universe reheats to a high temperature and a modulus (real scalar field) changes the sign of its minimum dynamically, which changes the sign of the mass of a vector-like fermion charged under QCD. As a result, the minimum of the axion potential during inflation becomes the maximum of the potential after the Universe has cooled through the QCD phase transition and the axion starts oscillating. In this model, we can produce QCD axion dark matter with a decay constant as low as 6 x 10(9) GeV and an axion mass up to 1 meV. We also summarise the phenomenological implications of this mechanism for dark matter experiments and colliders.