Several observables sensitive to the fragmentation of b quarks into b hadrons are measured using 36 fb−1 of √s=13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Jets ...containing b hadrons are obtained from a sample of dileptonic t¯t events, and the associated set of charged-particle tracks is separated into those from the primary pp interaction vertex and those from the displaced b-decay secondary vertex. This division is used to construct observables that characterize the longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions of the b hadron within the jet. The measurements have been corrected for detector effects and provide a test of heavy-quark-fragmentation modeling at the LHC in a system where the top-quark decay products are color connected to the proton beam remnants. The unfolded distributions are compared with the predictions of several modern Monte Carlo parton-shower generators and generator tunes, and a wide range of agreement with the data is observed, with p values varying from 5×10−4 to 0.98. These measurements complement similar measurements from e+e− collider experiments in which the b quarks originate from a color singlet Z/γ∗.
A study of B+c→J/ψD+s and B+c→J/ψD∗+s decays using 139 fb−1 of integrated luminosity collected with the ATLAS detector from s√ = 13 TeV pp collisions at the LHC is presented. The ratios of the ...branching fractions of the two decays to the branching fraction of the B+c → J/ψπ+ decay are measured: B(B+c→J/ψD+s)/B(B+c→J/ψπ+) = 2.76 ± 0.47 and B(B+c→J/ψD∗+s)/B(B+c→J/ψπ+) = 5.33 ± 0.96. The ratio of the branching fractions of the two decays is found to be B(B+c→J/ψD∗+s)/B(B+c→J/ψD∗+s) = 1.93 ± 0.26. For the B+c→J/ψD∗+s decay, the transverse polarization fraction, Γ±±/Γ, is measured to be 0.70 ± 0.11. The reported uncertainties include both the statistical and systematic components added in quadrature. The precision of the measurements exceeds that in all previous studies of these decays. These results supersede those obtained in the earlier ATLAS study of the same decays with s√ = 7 and 8 TeV pp collision data. A comparison with available theoretical predictions for the measured quantities is presented.
The yield of charged particles opposite to a Z boson with large transverse momentum (pT) is measured in 260 pb−1 of pp and 1.7 nb−1 of Pb+Pb collision data at 5.02 TeV per nucleon pair recorded ...with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The Z boson tag is used to select hard-scattered partons with specific kinematics, and to observe how their showers are modified as they propagate through the quark-gluon plasma created in Pb+Pb collisions. Compared with pp collisions, charged-particle yields in Pb+Pb collisions show significant modifications as a function of charged-particle pT in a way that depends on event centrality and Z boson pT. The data are compared with a variety of theoretical calculations and provide new information about the medium-induced energy loss of partons in a pT regime difficult to measure through other channels.
A search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of Z bosons leading to ℓ+ℓ−ℓ′+ℓ′− and ℓ+ℓ−νν¯ final states, where ℓ stands for either an electron or a muon, is presented. The search uses ...proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected from 2015 to 2018 that corresponds to the integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 recorded by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. Different mass ranges spanning 200 GeV to 2000 GeV for the hypothetical resonances are considered, depending on the final state and model. In the absence of a significant observed excess, the results are interpreted as upper limits on the production cross section of a spin-0 or spin-2 resonance. The upper limits for the spin-0 resonance are translated to exclusion contours in the context of Type-I and Type-II two-Higgs-doublet models, and the limits for the spin-2 resonance are used to constrain the Randall–Sundrum model with an extra dimension giving rise to spin-2 graviton excitations.
Azimuthal anisotropies of muons from charm and bottom hadron decays are measured in Pb+Pb collisions at √sNN=5.02TeV. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in ...2015 and 2018 with integrated luminosities of 0.5nb−1 and 1.4nb−1, respectively. The kinematic selection for heavy-flavor muons requires transverse momentum 4 < pT < 30GeV and pseudorapidity |η| < 2.0. The dominant sources of muons in this pT range are semi-leptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons. These heavy-flavor muons are separated from light-hadron decay muons and punch-through hadrons using the momentum imbalance between the measurements in the tracking detector and in the muon spectrometers. Azimuthal anisotropies, quantified by flow coefficients, are measured via the event-plane method for inclusive heavy-flavor muons as a function of the muon pTand in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. Heavy-flavor muons are separated into contributions from charm and bottom hadron decays using the muon transverse impact parameter with respect to the event primary vertex. Non-zero elliptic (v2) and triangular (v3) flow coefficients are extracted for charm and bottom muons, with the charm muon coefficients larger than those for bottom muons for all Pb+Pb collision centralities. The results indicate substantial modification to the charm and bottom quark angular distributions through interactions in the quark-gluon plasma produced in these Pb+Pb collisions, with smaller modifications for the bottom quarks as expected theoretically due to their larger mass.
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