A measurement of the top quark pair-production cross section in the lepton+jets decay channel is presented. It is based on 4.6 fb−1 of √s=7 TeV pp collision data collected during 2011 by the ATLAS ...experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. A three-class, multidimensional event classifier based on support vector machines is used to differentiate t¯t events from backgrounds. The t¯t production cross section is found to be σt¯t=168.5±0.7(stat) +6.2−5.9(syst) +3.4−3.2(lumi) pb. The result is consistent with the Standard Model prediction based on QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order.
A search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark is presented. The data analysed correspond to 139 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV, ...recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The production of a heavy charged Higgs boson in association with a top quark and a bottom quark, pp → tbH+ → tbtb, is explored in the H+ mass range from 200 to 2000 GeV using final states with jets and one electron or muon. Events are categorised according to the multiplicity of jets and b-tagged jets, and multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate between signal and background events. No significant excess above the background-only hypothesis is observed and exclusion limits are derived for the production cross-section times branching ratio of a charged Higgs boson as a function of its mass; they range from 3.6 pb at 200 GeV to 0.036 pb at 2000 GeV at 95% confidence level. The results are interpreted in the hMSSM and $$ {M}_h^{125} $$ M h 125 scenarios.
A search for a long-lived, heavy neutral lepton ( N ) in 139 fb −1 of √s=13 TeV pp collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is reported. The N is produced via W→ ...Nμ or W→ Ne and decays into two charged leptons and a neutrino, forming a displaced vertex. The N mass is used to discriminate between signal and background. No signal is observed, and limits are set on the squared mixing parameters of the N with the left-handed neutrino states for the N mass range 3 GeV< m N <15 GeV. For the first time, limits are given for both single-flavor and multiflavor mixing scenarios motivated by neutrino flavor oscillation results for both the normal and inverted neutrino-mass hierarchies.
A search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into W±W± or W±Z bosons is performed, involving experimental signatures with two leptons of the same charge, or three or four leptons with a variety of ...charge combinations, missing transverse momentum and jets. A data sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 is used. The data correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1. The search is guided by a type-II seesaw model that extends the scalar sector of the Standard Model with a scalar triplet, leading to a phenomenology that includes doubly and singly charged Higgs bosons. Two scenarios are explored, corresponding to the pair production of doubly charged H±± bosons, or the associated production of a doubly charged H±± boson and a singly charged H± boson. No significant deviations from the Standard Model predictions are observed. H±± bosons are excluded at 95% confidence level up to 350 GeV and 230 GeV for the pair and associated production modes, respectively.
A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying into a top quark and a τ-lepton is presented. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 ...TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb-1. Events are selected if they have one light lepton (electron or muon) and at least one hadronically decaying τ -lepton, or at least two light leptons. In addition, two or more jets, at least one of which must be identified as containing b-hadrons, are required. Six final states, defined by the multiplicity and flavour of lepton candidates, are considered in the analysis. Each of them is split into multiple event categories to simultaneously search for the signal and constrain several leading backgrounds. The signal-rich event categories require at least one hadronically decaying τ-lepton candidate and exploit the presence of energetic final-state objects, which is characteristic of signal events. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed in any of the considered event categories, and 95% CL upper limits are set on the production cross section as a function of the leptoquark mass, for different assumptions about the branching fractions into tτ and bν. Scalar leptoquarks decaying exclusively into tτ are excluded up to masses of 1.43 TeV while, for a branching fraction of 50% into tτ, the lower mass limit is 1.22 TeV.
The decays Formula: see text and Formula: see text are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset corresponding to integrated luminosities of 4.9 and 20.6 fbFormula: see text of
...collisions collected at centre-of-mass energies Formula: see text TeV and 8 TeV, respectively. Signal candidates are identified through Formula: see text and Formula: see text decays. With a two-dimensional likelihood fit involving the Formula: see text reconstructed invariant mass and an angle between the Formula: see text and Formula: see text candidate momenta in the muon pair rest frame, the yields of Formula: see text and Formula: see text, and the transverse polarisation fraction in Formula: see text decay are measured. The transverse polarisation fraction is determined to be Formula: see text, and the derived ratio of the branching fractions of the two modes is Formula: see text, where the first error is statistical and the second is systematic. Finally, a sample of Formula: see text decays is used to derive the ratios of branching fractions Formula: see text and Formula: see text, where the third error corresponds to the uncertainty of the branching fraction of Formula: see text decay. The available theoretical predictions are generally consistent with the measurement.
Combined analyses of the Higgs boson production and decay rates as well as its coupling strengths to vector bosons and fermions are presented. The combinations include the results of the analyses of ...the Formula: see text and Formula: see text decay modes, and the constraints on the associated production with a pair of top quarks and on the off-shell coupling strengths of the Higgs boson. The results are based on the LHC proton-proton collision datasets, with integrated luminosities of up to 4.7 Formula: see text at Formula: see text TeV and 20.3 Formula: see text at Formula: see text TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2011 and 2012. Combining all production modes and decay channels, the measured signal yield, normalised to the Standard Model expectation, is Formula: see text. The observed Higgs boson production and decay rates are interpreted in a leading-order coupling framework, exploring a wide range of benchmark coupling models both with and without assumptions on the Higgs boson width and on the Standard Model particle content in loop processes. The data are found to be compatible with the Standard Model expectations for a Higgs boson at a mass of 125.36 GeV for all models considered.
A search for new-physics resonances decaying into a lepton and a jet performed by the ATLAS experiment is presented. Scalar leptoquarks pair-produced in pp collisions at 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 of c- or b-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.
The production cross-section of a top quark in association with a W boson is measured using proton–proton collisions at √s = 8TeV. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb–1, ...and was collected in 2012 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The analysis is performed in the single-lepton channel. Events are selected by requiring one isolated lepton (electron or muon) and at least three jets. A neural network is trained to separate the tW signal from the dominant tt¯ background. The cross-section is extracted from a binned profile maximum-likelihood fit to a two-dimensional discriminant built from the neural-network output and the invariant mass of the hadronically decaying W boson. The measured cross-section is σtW = 26 ± 7pb, in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation.
The paper presents studies of Bose-Einstein Correlations (BEC) for pairs of like-sign charged particles measured in the kinematic range Formula: see text 100 MeV and Formula: see text 2.5 in proton ...collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The integrated luminosities are approximately 7 Formula: see textbFormula: see text, 190 Formula: see textbFormula: see text and 12.4 nbFormula: see text for 0.9 TeV, 7 TeV minimum-bias and 7 TeV high-multiplicity data samples, respectively. The multiplicity dependence of the BEC parameters characterizing the correlation strength and the correlation source size are investigated for charged-particle multiplicities of up to 240. A saturation effect in the multiplicity dependence of the correlation source size parameter is observed using the high-multiplicity 7 TeV data sample. The dependence of the BEC parameters on the average transverse momentum of the particle pair is also investigated.