The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 140 fb - 1 of s = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron ...Collider. The charm quark is tagged by the presence of a charmed hadron reconstructed with a secondary-vertex fit. The W boson is reconstructed from the decay to either an electron or a muon and the missing transverse momentum present in the event. The charmed mesons reconstructed are D + → K - π + π + and D * + → D 0 π + → ( K - π + ) π + and the charge conjugate decays in the fiducial regions where p T ( e , μ ) > 30 GeV , | η ( e , μ ) | < 2.5 , p T ( D ( * ) ) > 8 GeV , and | η ( D ( * ) ) | < 2.2 . The integrated and normalized differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W boson decay, and of the transverse momentum of the charmed hadron, are extracted from the data using a profile likelihood fit. The measured total fiducial cross sections are σ fid OS - SS ( W - + D + ) = 50.2 ± 0.2 ( stat ) - 2.3 + 2.4 ( syst ) pb , σ fid OS - SS ( W + + D - ) = 48.5 ± 0.2 ( stat ) - 2.2 + 2.3 ( syst ) pb , σ fid OS - SS ( W - + D * + ) = 51.1 ± 0.4 ( stat ) - 1.8 + 1.9 ( syst ) pb , and σ fid OS - SS ( W + + D * - ) = 50.0 ± 0.4 ( stat ) - 1.8 + 1.9 ( syst ) pb . Results are compared with the predictions of next-to-leading-order quantum chromodynamics calculations performed using state-of-the-art parton distribution functions. Additionally, the ratio of charm to anticharm production cross sections is studied to probe the s - s ¯ quark asymmetry. The ratio is found to be R c ± = 0.971 ± 0.006 ( stat ) ± 0.011 ( syst ) . The ratio and cross-section measurements are consistent with the predictions obtained with parton distribution function sets that have a symmetric s - s ¯ sea, indicating that any s - s ¯ asymmetry in the Bjorken- x region relevant for this measurement is small.
A search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the b¯bb¯b final state is presented. The analysis uses 126 fb−1 of pp collision data at √s=13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the ...Large Hadron Collider, and targets both the gluon-gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion production modes. No evidence of the signal is found and the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 5.4 (8.1) times the Standard Model predicted cross section at 95% confidence level. Constraints are placed on modifiers to the HHH and HHVV couplings. The observed (expected) 2σ constraints on the HHH coupling modifier, κλ, are determined to be −3.5,11.3 (−5.4,11.4), while the corresponding constraints for the HHVV coupling modifier, κ2V, are −0.0,2.1 (−0.1,2.1). In addition, constraints on relevant coefficients are derived in the context of the Standard Model effective field theory and Higgs effective field theory, and upper limits on the HH production cross section are placed in seven Higgs effective field theory benchmark scenarios.
We present measurements of cross sections for production of a leptonically decaying Z boson in association with a large-radius jet in 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC, using 36 fb−1 of ...data from the ATLAS detector. Integrated and differential cross sections are measured at particle level in both a flavor inclusive and a doubly b-tagged fiducial phase space. The large-radius jet mass and transverse momentum, its kinematic relationship to the Z boson, and the angular separation of b-tagged small-radius track jets within the large-radius jet are measured. This measurement constitutes an important test of perturbative quantum chromodynamics in kinematic and flavor configurations relevant to several Higgs boson and beyond-Standard-Model physics analyses. The results highlight issues with modeling of additional hadronic activity in the flavor-inclusive selection, and a distinction between flavor-number schemes in the b-tagged phase space.
Measurements of the suppression and correlations of dijets is performed using 3µb−1 of Xe+Xe data at √sNN=5.44 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Dijets with ...jets reconstructed using the R=0.4 anti-kt algorithm are measured differentially in jet pT over the range of 32 to 398 GeV and the centrality of the collisions. Significant dijet momentum imbalance is found in the most central Xe+Xe collisions, which decreases in more peripheral collisions. Results from the measurement of per-pair normalized and absolutely normalized dijet pT balance are compared with previous Pb+Pb measurements at √sNN=5.02 TeV. The differences between the dijet suppression in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb are further quantified by the ratio of pair nuclear-modification factors. The results are found to be consistent with those measured in Pb+Pb data when compared in classes of the same event activity and when taking into account the difference between the center-of-mass energies of the initial parton scattering process in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb collisions. These results should provide input for a better understanding of the role of energy density, system size, path length, and fluctuations in the parton energy loss.
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.
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