Abstract: A combination of measurements of the inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section performed by ATLAS and CMS in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV at the LHC is presented. The cross-sections are obtained using top-quark pair decays with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair in the final state and with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 5 fb(-1) at root s = 7 TeV and about 20 fb(-1) at root s = 8TeV for each experiment. The combined cross-sections are determined to be 178.5 +/- 4.7 pb at root s = 7 TeV and 243.3(-5.9)(+6.0) pb at root s = 8TeV with a correlation of 0.41, using a reference top-quark mass value of 172.5 GeV. The ratio of the combined crosssections is determined to be R-8/7 = 1.363 +/- 0.032. The combined measured cross-sections and their ratio agree well with theory calculations using several parton distribution function (PDF) sets. The values of the top-quark pole mass (with the strong coupling fixed at 0.118) and the strong coupling (with the top-quark pole mass fixed at 172.5 GeV) are extracted from the combined results by fitting a next-to-next-to-leading-order plus next-to-next-to-leading-log QCD prediction to the measurements. Using a version of the NNPDF3.1 PDF set containing no top-quark measurements, the results obtained are m(t)(pole) = 173.4(-2.0)(+1.8) GeV and alpha s(m(Z)) = 0.1170(-0.0018)(+0.0021).

Abstract: The exclusive production of pion pairs in the process pp -> pp pi(+)pi(-) has been measured at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, using 80 μb(-1) of low-luminosity data. The pion pairs were detected in the ATLAS central detector while outgoing protons were measured in the forwardATLASALFAdetector system. This represents the first use of proton tagging to measure an exclusive hadronic final state at the LHC. Across-sectionmeasurement is performed in two kinematic regions defined by the proton momenta, the pion rapidities and transverse momenta, and the pion-pion invariant mass. Cross-section values of 4.8 +/- 1.0 (stat)(-0.2) (+0.3)(syst) μb and 9 +/- 6 (stat)(-2)(+2) (syst) μb are obtained in the two regions; they are compared with theoretical models and provide a demonstration of the feasibility of measurements of this type.

Abstract: A search is presented for single production of a vector-like B quark decaying into a Standard Model b-quark and a Standard Model Higgs boson, which decays into a b (b) over bar pair. The search is carried out in 139 fb(-1) of root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC between 2015 and 2018. No significant deviation from the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and mass-dependent exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the resonance production cross-section in several theoretical scenarios determined by the couplings c(W), c(Z) and c(H) between the B quark and the Standard Model W, Z and Higgs bosons, respectively. For a vector-like B occurring as an isospin singlet, the search excludes values of c(W) greater than 0.45 for a B resonance mass (m(B)) between 1.0 and 1.2 TeV. For 1.2 TeV < m(B)< 2.0 TeV, c(W) values larger than 0.50-0.65 are excluded. If the B occurs as part of a (B, Y) doublet, the smallest excluded c(Z) coupling values range between 0.3 and 0.5 across the investigated resonance mass range 1.0 TeV < m(B)< 2.0 TeV.

Abstract: A measurement of novel event shapes quantifying the isotropy of collider events is performed in 140 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions with root s = 13TeV centre-of-mass energy recorded with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. These event shapes are defined as the Wasserstein distance between collider events and isotropic reference geometries. This distance is evaluated by solving optimal transport problems, using the 'Energy-Mover's Distance'. Isotropic references with cylindrical and circular symmetries are studied, to probe the symmetries of interest at hadron colliders. The novel event-shape observables defined in this way are infrared- and collinear-safe, have improved dynamic range and have greater sensitivity to isotropic radiation patterns than other event shapes. The measured event-shape variables are corrected for detector effects, and presented in inclusive bins of jet multiplicity and the scalar sum of the two leading jets' transverse momenta. The measured distributions are provided as inputs to future Monte Carlo tuning campaigns and other studies probing fundamental properties of QCD and the production of hadronic final states up to the TeV-scale.

Abstract: This paper reports a search for Higgs boson pair (hh) production in association with a vector boson ( W or Z) using 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is performed in final states in which the vector boson decays leptonically (W -> l nu, Z -> ll, nu nu with l = e, mu) and the Higgs bosons each decay into a pair of b-quarks. It targets Vhh signals from both non-resonant hh production, present in the Standard Model (SM), and resonant hh production, as predicted in some SM extensions. A 95% confidence-level upper limit of 183 (87) times the SM cross-section is observed (expected) for non-resonant Vhh production when assuming the kinematics are as expected in the SM. Constraints are also placed on Higgs boson coupling modifiers. For the resonant search, upper limits on the production cross-sections are derived for two specific models: one is the production of a vector boson along with a neutral heavy scalar resonance H, in the mass range 260-1000GeV, that decays into hh, and the other is the production of a heavier neutral pseudoscalar resonance A that decays into a Z boson and H boson, where the A boson mass is 360-800GeV and the H boson mass is 260-400GeV. Constraints are also derived in the parameter space of two-Higgs-doublet models.