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.