Abstract: This paper presents the observation of four-topquark (t (t) over bart (t) over bar) production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 140 fb-1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeVcollected using the ATLAS detector. Events containing two leptons with the same electric charge or at least three leptons (electrons or muons) are selected. Event kinematics are used to separate signal from background through a multivariate discriminant, and dedicated control regions are used to constrain the dominant backgrounds. The observed (expected) significance of themeasured t (t) over bart (t) over bar signal with respect to the standard model (SM) background-only hypothesis is 6.1 (4.3) standard deviations. The t (t) over bart (t) over bar production cross section is measured to be 22.5(-5.5)(+6.6), consistent with the SM prediction of 12.0 +/- 2.4 fb within 1.8 standard deviations. Data are also used to set limits on the three-top-quark production cross section, being an irreducible background not measured previously, and to constrain the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling and effective field theory operator coefficients that affect t (t) over bart (t) over bar production.

Abstract: A search for heavy long-lived multi-charged particles is performed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Data collected in 2015-2018 at root s = 13 TeV from pp collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb(-1) are examined. Particles producing anomalously high ionization, consistent with long-lived spin-1/2 massive particles with electric charges from |q| = 2e to |q| = 7e are searched for. No statistically significant evidence of such particles is observed, and 95% confidence level cross-section upper limits are calculated and interpreted as the lower mass limits for a Drell-Yan plus photon-fusion production mode. The least stringent limit, 1060 GeV, is obtained for |q| = 2e particles, and the most stringent one, 1600 GeV, is for |q| = 6e particles.

Abstract: We consider Drell-Yan lepton pairs produced in hadronic collisions. We present high-accuracy QCD predictions for the transverse-momentum (qT) distribution and fiducial cross sections in the small qT region. We resum to all perturbative orders the logarithmically enhanced contributions up to the next-to-next-to-next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic (N4LL) accuracy and we include the hard-virtual coefficient at the next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N3LO) (i.e. O(& alpha;3S)) with an approximation of the N4LO coefficients. The massive axial-vector and vector contributions up to three loops have also been consistently included. The resummed partonic cross section is convoluted with approximate N3LO parton distribution functions. We show numerical results at LHC energies of resummed qT distributions for Z/& gamma; *, W & PLUSMN; production and decay, including the W & PLUSMN; and Z/& gamma; * ratio, estimating the corresponding uncertainties from missing higher orders corrections and from incomplete or missing perturbative information coefficients at N4LL and N4LO. Our resummed calculation has been encoded in the public numerical program DYTurbo.

Abstract: In dark-matter annihilation channels to hadronic final states, stable particles – such as positrons, photons, antiprotons, and antineutrinos – are produced via complex sequences of phenomena including QED/QCD radiation, hadronisation, and hadron decays. These processes are normally modelled by Monte Carlo (MC) event generators whose limited accuracy imply intrinsic QCD uncertainties on the predictions for indirect-detection experiments like Fermi-LAT, Pamela, IceCube or Ams-02. In this article, we perform a comprehensive analysis of QCD uncertainties, meaning both perturbative and nonperturbative sources of uncertainty are included – estimated via variations of MC renormalization-scale and fragmentation-function parameters, respectively – in antimatter spectra from dark-matter annihilation, based on parametric variations of the Pythia 8 event generator. After performing several retunings of light-quark fragmentation functions, we define a set of variations that span a conservative estimate of the QCD uncertainties. We estimate the effects on antimatter spectra for various annihilation channels and final-state particle species, and discuss their impact on fitted values for the dark-matter mass and thermally-averaged annihilation cross section. We find dramatic impacts which can go up to O(10%) for the annihilation cross section. We provide the spectra in tabulated form including QCD uncertainties and code snippets to perform fast dark-matter fits, in this github repository.

Abstract: Nuclear matrix elements (NME) are a crucial input for the interpretation of neutrinoless double beta decay data. We consider a representative set of recent NME calculations from different methods and investigate the impact on the present bound on the effective Majorana mass m(& beta;& beta;) by performing a combined analysis of the available data as well as on the sensitivity reach of future projects. A crucial role is played by the recently discovered short-range contribution to the NME, induced by light Majorana neutrino masses. Depending on the NME model and the relative sign of the long- and short-range contributions, the current 3 & sigma; bound can change between m(& beta;& beta;)< 40 meV and 600 meV. The sign-uncertainty may either boost the sensitivity of next-generation experiments beyond the region for m(& beta;& beta;) predicted for inverted mass ordering or prevent even advanced setups to reach this region. Furthermore, we study the possibility to distinguish between different NME calculations by assuming a positive signal and by combining measurements from different isotopes. Such a discrimination will be impossible if the relative sign of the long- and short-range contribution remains unknown, but can become feasible if m(& beta;& beta;) & GSIM; 40 meV and if the relative sign is known to be positive. Sensitivities will be dominated by the advanced Ge-76 and Xe-136 setups assumed here, but NME model-discrimination improves if data from a third isotope is added, e.g., from Te-130 or Mo-100.