The modification of the production of $J/\psi$, $\psi(\mathrm{2S})$, and $\mit{\Upsilon}(n\mathrm{S})$ ($n = 1, 2, 3$) in $p$+Pb collisions with respect to their production in $pp$ collisions has been studied. The $p$+Pb and $pp$ datasets used in this paper correspond to integrated luminosities of $28$ $\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ and $25$ $\mathrm{pb}^{-1}$ respectively, collected in 2013 and 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, both at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.02 TeV. The quarkonium states are reconstructed in the dimuon decay channel. The yields of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(\mathrm{2S})$ are separated into prompt and non-prompt sources. The measured quarkonium differential cross sections are presented as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum, as is the nuclear modification factor, $R_{p\mathrm{Pb}}$ for $J/\psi$ and $\mit{\Upsilon}(\mathrm{1S})$. No significant modification of the $J/\psi$ production is observed while $\mit{\Upsilon}(\mathrm{1S})$ production is found to be suppressed at low transverse momentum in $p$+Pb collisions relative to $pp$ collisions. The production of excited charmonium and bottomonium states is found to be suppressed relative to that of the ground states in central $p$+Pb collisions.
High transverse momentum jets produced in pp collisions at a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV are used to measure the transverse energy-energy correlation function and its associated azimuthal asymmetry. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in the year 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 158 $\mathrm{pb}^{-1}$. The selection criteria demand the average transverse momentum of the two leading jets in an event to be larger than 250 GeV. The data at detector level are well described by Monte Carlo event generators. They are unfolded to the particle level and compared with theoretical calculations at next-to-leading-order accuracy. The agreement between data and theory is good and provides a precision test of perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics at large momentum transfers. From this comparison, the strong coupling constant given at the $Z$ boson mass is determined to be $\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}(m_Z) = 0.1173 \pm 0.0010 \mbox{ (exp.) }^{+0.0065}_{-0.0026} \mbox{ (theo.)}$.
A search for diphoton resonances in the mass range between 10 and 70 GeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented. The analysis is based on $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded from 2015 to 2018. Previous searches for diphoton resonances at the LHC have explored masses down to 65 GeV, finding no evidence of new particles. This search exploits the particular kinematics of events with pairs of closely spaced photons reconstructed in the detector, allowing examination of invariant masses down to 10 GeV. The presented strategy covers a region previously unexplored at hadron colliders because of the experimental challenges of recording low-energy photons and estimating the backgrounds. No significant excess is observed and the reported limits provide the strongest bound on promptly decaying axion-like particles coupling to gluons and photons for masses between 10 and 70 GeV.
This Letter reports the observation of a high transverse momentum $Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ signal in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV and the measurement of its production cross section. The data analysed were collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb$^{-1}$. The $Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ decay is reconstructed from a pair of b-tagged jets, clustered with the anti-$k_t$ jet algorithm with $R = 0.4$, that have low angular separation and form a dijet with $p_T > 200$ GeV. The signal yield is extracted from a fit to the dijet invariant mass distribution, with the dominant, multi-jet background mass shape estimated by employing a fully data-driven technique that reduces the dependence of the analysis on simulation. The fiducial cross section is determined to be \[ \sigma^\mathrm{fid}_{Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}} = 2.02 \pm 0.20 ({\rm stat.}) \pm0.25 ({\rm syst.)}\pm 0.06 ({\rm lumi.}){\rm\,pb} = 2.02 \pm{0.33}{\rm\,pb}, \] in good agreement with next-to-leading-order theoretical predictions.
A search for physics beyond the Standard Model, in final states with at least one high transverse momentum charged lepton (electron or muon) and two additional high transverse momentum leptons or jets, is performed using 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The upper end of the distribution of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of leptons and jets is sensitive to the production of high-mass objects. No excess of events beyond Standard Model predictions is observed. Exclusion limits are set for models of microscopic black holes with two to six extra dimensions.
Several extensions of the Standard Model predict associated production of dark-matter particles with a Higgs boson. Such processes are searched for in final states with missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson decaying to a $b\bar b$ pair with the ATLAS detector using 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC. The observed data are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions and limits are placed on the associated production of dark-matter particles and a Higgs boson.
A measurement of the cross section for the inclusive production of isolated prompt photons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV is presented. The measurement covers the pseudo rapidity ranges $|\eta^{\gamma}| < 1.37$ and $1.56 \leq |\eta^{\gamma}| < 2.37$ in the transverse energy range $25 < E_{\rm T}^{\gamma} < 1500$ GeV. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb$^{-1}$, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Photon candidates are identified by combining information from the calorimeters and the inner tracker. The background is subtracted using a data-driven technique, based on the observed calorimeter shower-shape variables and the deposition of hadronic energy in a narrow cone around the photon candidate. The measured cross sections are compared with leading-order and next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations and are found to be in a good agreement over ten orders of magnitude.
A search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of $Z$ bosons leading to $\ell^+\ell^-\ell'^+\ell'^-$ and $\ell^+\ell^-\nu\bar\nu$ final states, where $\ell$ 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 full 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.
This paper presents single lepton and dilepton kinematic distributions measured in dileptonic $t\bar{t}$ events produced in 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV $pp$ collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Both absolute and normalised differential cross-sections are measured, using events with an opposite-charge $e\mu$ pair and one or two $b$-tagged jets. The cross-sections are measured in a fiducial region corresponding to the detector acceptance for leptons, and are compared to the predictions from a variety of Monte Carlo event generators, as well as fixed-order QCD calculations, exploring the sensitivity of the cross-sections to the gluon parton distribution function. Some of the distributions are also sensitive to the top quark pole mass; a combined fit of NLO fixed-order predictions to all the measured distributions yields a top quark mass value of $m_t^{\rm pole}=173.2\pm 0.9\pm0.8\pm1.2$ GeV, where the three uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental systematics, and theoretical sources.
A search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of $Z$ bosons leading to $\ell^+\ell^-\ell^+\ell^-$ and $\ell^+\ell^-\nu\bar\nu$ final states, where $\ell$ 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 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the ATLAS detector during 2015 and 2016 at the Large Hadron Collider. Different mass ranges for the hypothetical resonances are considered, depending on the final state and model. The different ranges span between 200 GeV and 2000 GeV. 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, while those 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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