A measurement of the top quark electric charge is carried out in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using 2.05 fb-1 of data at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. In units of the ...elementary electric charge, the top quark charge is determined to be 0.64 +- 0.02 (stat.) +- 0.08 (syst.) from the charges of the top quark decay products in single lepton ttbar candidate events. This excludes models that propose a heavy quark of electric charge --4/3, instead of the Standard Model top quark, with a significance of more than 8 sigma.
The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV and sqrt(s)=8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, using ttbar events with an ...opposite-charge e-mu pair in the final state. The measurement was performed with the 2011 7 TeV dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1 and the 2012 8 TeV dataset of 20.3 fb-1. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets were counted and used to simultaneously determine sigma(ttbar) and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a b-jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section was measured to be: sigma(ttbar)=$182.9\pm3.1\pm4.2\pm3.6\pm3.3$ pb (7 TeV) and sigma(ttbar)=$242.4\pm1.7\pm5.5\pm7.5\pm4.2$ pb (8 TeV), where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the knowledge of the integrated luminosity and of the LHC beam energy. The results are consistent with recent theoretical QCD calculations at NNLO. Fiducial measurements corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons are also reported, together with the ratio of cross-sections measured at the two centre-of-mass energies. The inclusive cross-section results were used to determine the top quark pole mass via the dependence of the theoretically-predicted cross-section on $m_t^{pole}$, giving a result of $m_t^{pole}=172.9^{+2.5}_{-2.6}$ GeV. By looking for an excess of ttbar production with respect to the QCD prediction, the results were also used to place limits on the pair-production of supersymmetric top squarks with masses close to the top quark mass decaying to predominantly right-handed top quarks and a light neutralino, the lightest supersymmetric particle. Top squarks with masses between the top quark mass and 177 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.
A search is presented for production of a heavy up-type quark (t') together with its antiparticle, assuming a significant branching ratio for subsequent decay into a W boson and a b quark. The search ...is based on 4.7 fb^-1 of pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV recorded in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analyzed in the lepton+jets final state, characterized by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum and at least three jets. The analysis strategy relies on the substantial boost of the W bosons in the t't'bar signal when mt'>=400 GeV. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed and the result of the search is interpreted in the context of fourth-generation and vector-like quark models. Under the assumption of a branching ratio BR(t'->Wb)=1, a fourth-generation t' quark with mass lower than 656 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level. In addition, in light of the recent discovery of a new boson of mass ~126 GeV at the LHC, upper limits are derived in the two-dimensional plane of BR(t'->Wb) versus BR(t'->Ht), where H is the Standard Model Higgs boson, for vector-like quarks of various masses.
In several extensions of the Standard Model, the top quark can decay into a bottom quark and a light charged Higgs boson H+, t to bH+, in addition to the Standard Model decay t to bW. Since W bosons ...decay to the three lepton generations equally, while H+ may predominantly decay into tau+nu, charged Higgs bosons can be searched for using the violation of lepton universality in top quark decays. The analysis in this paper is based on 4.6/fb of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Signatures containing leptons (e or mu) and/or a hadronically decaying tau (tau_had) are used. Event yield ratios between e+tau_had and e+mu, as well as between mu+tau_had and mu+e, final states are measured in the data and compared to predictions from simulations. This ratio-based method reduces the impact of systematic uncertainties in the analysis. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed. With the assumption that the branching fraction B(H+ to tau+nu) is 100%, upper limits in the range 3.2%-4.4% can be placed on the branching fraction B(t to bH+) for charged Higgs boson masses m(H+) in the range 90-140 GeV. After combination with results from a search for charged Higgs bosons in ttbar decays using the tau_had+jets final state, upper limits on B(t to bH+) can be set in the range 0.8%-3.4%, for m(H+) in the range 90-160 GeV.
A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. In a data sample ...corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1 collected in 2011, events are selected that are consistent either with two Z bosons decaying to electrons or muons or with one Z boson decaying to electrons or muons and a second Z boson decaying to neutrinos. The ZZ*->llll and ZZ->llnunu cross sections are measured in restricted phase-space regions. These results are then used to derive the total cross section for ZZ events produced with both Z bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV, sigmaZZtot = 6.7 +-0.7 +0.4-0.3 +-0.3 pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of 5.89+0.22-0.18 pb calculated at next-to-leading order in QCD. The normalized differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. Finally, the differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading Z boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in ZZ production.
A search is presented for new particles decaying to large numbers (7 to greater or equal to 10) of jets, missing transverse momentum and no isolated electrons or muons. This analysis uses 20.3/fb of ...pp collision data at sqrt(s)=8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The sensitivity of the search is enhanced by considering the number of b-tagged jets and the scalar sum of masses of large-radius jets in an event. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of various simplified supersymmetry-inspired models where gluinos are pair produced, as well as a mSUGRA/CMSSM model.
A measurement of splitting scales, as defined by the kT clustering algorithm, is presented for final states containing a W boson produced in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 ...TeV. The measurement is based on the full 2010 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1 which was collected using the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Cluster splitting scales are measured in events containing W bosons decaying to electrons or muons. The measurement comprises the four hardest splitting scales in a kT cluster sequence of the hadronic activity accompanying the W boson, and ratios of these splitting scales. Backgrounds such as multi-jet and top-quark-pair production are subtracted and the results are corrected for detector effects. Predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators at particle level are compared to the data. Overall, reasonable agreement is found with all generators, but larger deviations between the predictions and the data are evident in the soft regions of the splitting scales.
A measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in the final state with a hadronically decaying tau lepton and jets is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data ...recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.67 inverse femtobarns. The cross section is measured to be 194 +/- 18 (stat.) +/- 46 (syst.) pb and is in agreement with other measurements and with the Standard Model prediction.
Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb^-1 of pp collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV ...collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from >=6 to >=9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m_0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV.
A search is reported for the pair production of a new quark, b', with at least one b' decaying to a Z boson and a bottom quark. The data, corresponding to 2.0 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity, were ...collected from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Using events with a b-tagged jet and a Z boson reconstructed from opposite-charge electrons, the mass distribution of large transverse momentum b' candidates is tested for an enhancement. No evidence for a b' signal is detected in the observed mass distribution, resulting in the exclusion at 95% confidence level of b' quarks with masses m_{b'} < 400 GeV that decay entirely via b' to Z+b. In the case of a vector-like singlet b' mixing solely with the third Standard Model generation, masses m_{b'} < 358 GeV are excluded.
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