Abstract: A search for Higgs boson pair production via vector-boson fusion (VBF) in the b bbar b bbar final state is carried out with the ATLAS experiment using 126 fb(-1) of proton- proton collision data delivered at root s = 13 TeV by the Large Hadron Collider. This search is sensitive to VBF production of additional heavy bosons that may decay into Higgs boson pairs, and in a non-resonant topology it can constrain the quartic coupling between the Higgs bosons and vector bosons. No significant excess relative to the Standard Model expectation is observed, and limits on the production cross-section are set at the 95% confidence level for a heavy scalar resonance in the context of an extended Higgs sector, and for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production. Interpretation in terms of the coupling between a Higgs boson pair and two vector bosons is also provided: coupling values normalised to the Standard Model expectation of kappa (2V)< -0.76 and <kappa>(2V)> 2.90 are excluded at the 95% confidence level in data.

Abstract: We consider a left-right symmetric extension of the Standard Model where the spontaneous breakdown of the left-right symmetry is triggered by doublets. The electroweak rho parameter is protected from large corrections in this Doublet Left-Right Model (DLRM), contrary to the triplet case. This allows in principle for more diverse patterns of symmetry breaking. We consider several constraints on the gauge and scalar sectors of DLRM: the unitarity of scattering processes involving gauge bosons with longitudinal polarisations, the radiative corrections to the muon Delta r parameter and the electroweak precision observables measured at the Z pole and at low energies. Combining these constraints within the frequentist CKMfitter approach, we see that the fit pushes the scale of left-right symmetry breaking up to a few TeV, while favouring an electroweak symmetry breaking triggered not only by the SU (2)(L) x SU (2)(R) bi-doublet, which is the case most commonly considered in the literature, but also by the SU (2)(L) doublet.

Abstract: Inclusive and differential cross-sections for the production of top quarks in association with a photon are measured with proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1). The data were collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during Run 2 between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measurements are performed in a fiducial volume defined at parton level. Events with exactly one photon, one electron and one muon of opposite sign, and at least two jets, of which at least one is b-tagged, are selected. The fiducial cross-section is measured to be 39.6-2.3+2.7 fb. Differential cross-sections as functions of several observables are compared with state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations and next-to-leading-order theoretical calculations. These include cross-sections as functions of photon kinematic variables, angular variables related to the photon and the leptons, and angular separations between the two leptons in the event. All measurements are in agreement with the predictions from the Standard Model.

Abstract: We explore a common symmetrical origin for two long standing problems in particle physics: the strong CP and the fermion mass hierarchy problems. The Peccei-Quinn mechanism solves the former one with an anomalous global U(1)(PQ) symmetry. Here we investigate how this U(1)(PQ) could at the same time explain the fermion mass hierarchy. We work in the context of a four-Higgs-doublet model which explains all quark and charged fermion masses with natural, i.e. order 1, Yukawa couplings. Moreover, the axion of the model constitutes a viable dark matter candidate and neutrino masses are incorporated via the standard type-I seesaw mechanism. A simple extension of the model allows for Dirac neutrinos.

Abstract: For special kinematic configurations involving a single momentum scale, certain standard relations, originating from the Slavnov-Taylor identities of the theory, may be interpreted as ordinary differential equations for the “kinetic term” of the gluon propagator. The exact solutions of these equations exhibit poles at the origin, which are incompatible with the physical answer, known to diverge only logarithmically; their elimination hinges on the validity of two integral conditions that we denominate “asymmetric” and “symmetric” sum rules, depending on the kinematics employed in their derivation. The corresponding integrands contain components of the three-gluon vertex and the ghost-gluon kernel, whose dynamics are constrained when the sum rules are imposed. For the numerical treatment we single out the asymmetric sum rule, given that its support stems predominantly from low and intermediate energy regimes of the defining integral, which are physically more interesting. Adopting a combined approach based on Schwinger-Dyson equations and lattice simulations, we demonstrate how the sum rule clearly favors the suppression of an effective form factor entering in the definition of its kernel. The results of the present work offer an additional vantage point into the rich and complex structure of the three-point sector of QCD.