Abstract: measurement of the rapidity and transverse momentum dependence of dijet azimuthal decorrelations is presented, using the quantity R-Delta phi. The quantity R-Delta phi specifies the fraction of the inclusive dijet events in which the azimuthal opening angle of the two jets with the highest transverse momenta is less than a given value of the parameter Delta phi(max). The quantity R-Delta phi is measured in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV as a function of the dijet rapidity interval, the event total scalar transverse momentum, and Delta phi(max). The measurement uses an event sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Predictions of a perturbative QCD calculation at next-to-leading order in the strong coupling with corrections for nonperturbative effects are compared to the data. The theoretical predictions describe the data in the whole kinematic region. The data are used to determine the strong coupling alpha(S) and to study its running for momentum transfers from 260 GeV to above 1.6 TeV. Analysis that combines data at all momentum transfers results in alpha(S) (m(Z)) = 0.1127(- 0.0027) (+0.0063).

Abstract: A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vectorlike quarks, T (T) over bar or B (B) over bar, that decay into final states with jets and no reconstructed leptons. Jets in the final state are classified using a deep neural network as arising from hadronically decaying W/Z bosons, Higgs bosons, top quarks, or background. The analysis uses data from the ATLAS experiment corresponding to 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. Results are interpreted assuming the vectorlike quarks decay into a Standard Model boson and a third-generation-quark, T -> Wb, Ht, Zt or B -> Wt, Hb, Zb, for a variety of branching ratios. At 95% confidence level, the observed (expected) lower limit on the vectorlike B-quark mass for a weak-isospin doublet (B, Y) is 950 (890) GeV, and the lower limits on the masses for the pure decays B -> Hb and T -> Ht, where these results are strongest, arc 1010 (970) GeV and 1010 (1010) GeV, respectively.

Abstract: A search is performed for a heavy particle decaying into different-flavor, dilepton pairs (e mu, e tau or μtau), using 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected in 2015-2016 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excesses over the Standard Model predictions are observed. Bayesian lower limits at the 95% credibility level are placed on the mass of a Z' boson, the mass of a supersymmetric tau-sneutrino, and on the threshold mass for quantum black-hole production. For the Z' and sneutrino models, upper cross-section limits are converted to upper limits on couplings, which are compared with similar limits from low-energy experiments and which are more stringent for the e tau and μtau modes.

Abstract: Detailed information on isomeric states in A approximate to 135 nuclei is exploited to shell-model calculations in the region northwest of doubly magic nucleus Sn-132. The N = 79 isotones Xe-133 and Ba-135 are studied after multinucleon transfer in the Xe-136 + Pb-208 reaction employing the high-resolution Advanced GAmma Array (AGATA) coupled to the magnetic spectrometer PRISMA at the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro, Italy and in a pulsed-beam experiment at the FN tandem accelerator of the University of Cologne Germany utilizing a Be-9 + Te-130 fusion-evaporation reaction at a beam energy of 40 MeV. Isomeric states are identified via delayed gamma-ray spectroscopy. Hitherto tentative excitation energy spin and parity assignments of the 2017-keV J(pi) = 23/2(+) isomer in Xe-133 are confirmed and a half-life of T-1/2 = 8.64(13) ms is measured. The 2388-keV state in Ba-135. is identified as a J(pi) = 23/2(+) isomer with a half-life of 1.06(4) ms. The new results show a smooth onset of isomeric J(pi) = 23/2(+) states along the N = 79 isotones and close a gap in the high-spin systematics towards the recently investigated J(pi) = 23/2(+) isomer in Nd-139. The resulting systematics of M2 reduced transition probabilities is discussed within the of the nuclear shell model. Latest large-scale shell-model calculations employing the SN100PN, GCN50:82, SN100-KTH and a realistic effective interaction reproduce the experimental findings generally well and give insight into the structure of the isomers.

Abstract: Since 2003 many new hadrons, including the lowest-lying positive-parity charm-strange mesons D*(s0) (2317) and D-s1 (2460), have been observed that do not conform with quark-model expectations. It was recently demonstrated that various puzzles in the charm-meson spectrum find a natural resolution if the SU(3) multiplets for the lightest scalar and axial-vector states, among them the D*(s0) (2317) and the D-s1 (2460), owe their existence to the nonperturbative dynamics of Goldstone-boson scattering off D-(s) and D*((s)) mesons. Most importantly the ordering of the lightest strange and nonstrange scalars becomes natural. We demonstrate for the first time that this mechanism is strongly supported by the recent high quality data on the B- -> D+ pi(-)pi(-) provided by the LHCb experiment. This implies that the lowest quark-model positive-parity charm mesons, together with their bottom counterparts, if realized in nature, do not form the ground-state multiplet. This is similar to the pattern that has been established for the scalar mesons made from light up, down, and strange quarks, where the lowest multiplet is considered to be made of states not described by the quark model. In a broader view, the hadron spectrum must be viewed as more than a collection of quark-model states.