This paper presents a measurement of the polarisation of $\tau$ leptons produced in $Z/\gamma^{*}\rightarrow\tau\tau$ decays which is performed with a dataset of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012. The $Z/\gamma^{*}\rightarrow\tau\tau$ decays are reconstructed from a hadronically decaying $\tau$ lepton with a single charged particle in the final state, accompanied by a $\tau$ lepton that decays leptonically. The $\tau$ polarisation is inferred from the relative fraction of energy carried by charged and neutral hadrons in the hadronic $\tau$ decays. The polarisation is measured in a fiducial region that corresponds to the kinematic region accessible to this analysis. The $\tau$ polarisation extracted over the full phase space within the $Z/\gamma^{*}$ mass range of 66$ < m_{Z/\gamma^{*}} < $ 116 GeV is found to be $P_{\tau} =-0.14 \pm 0.02 (\text{stat}) \pm 0.04 (\text{syst})$. It is in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of $P_{\tau} =-0.1517 \pm 0.0019$, which is obtained from the ALPGEN event generator interfaced with the PYTHIA 6 parton shower modelling and the TAUOLA $\tau$ decay library.
The inclusive jet cross section is measured as a function of jet transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$ and rapidity $y$. The measurement is performed using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 pb$^{-1}$. The jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm using a distance parameter of $R$ = 0.4, within the rapidity interval $\lvert y\rvert$$\lt$ 2, and across the kinematic range 0.06 $\lt$$p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 1 TeV. The jet cross section is unfolded from detector to particle level using the determined jet response and resolution. The results are compared to predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics, calculated at both next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order. The predictions are corrected for nonperturbative effects, and presented for a variety of parton distribution functions and choices of the renormalization / factorization scales and the strong coupling $\alpha_\mathrm{S}$.
Measurements of charged particle multiplicity distributions in the central rapidity region in p-p and p-α, and α-α collisions are reported. They are better fitted to the “wounded nucleon” than to the “gluon string” model. The average transverse momenta, for all three reactions, are identical (and almost independent of multiplicity) up to very high multiplicities.
A search for the violation of the charge-parity ($CP$) symmetry in the production of top quarks in association with Z bosons is presented, using events with at least three charged leptons and additional jets. The search is performed in a sample of proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016-2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and in 2022 at 13.6 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 173 fb$^{-1}$. For the first time in this final state, observables that are odd under the $CP$ transformation are employed. Also for the first time, physics-informed machine-learning techniques are used to construct these observables. While for standard model (SM) processes the distributions of these observables are predicted to be symmetric around zero, $CP$-violating modifications of the SM would introduce asymmetries. Two $CP$-odd operators $\mathcal{O}_\text{tW}^\text{I}$ and $\mathcal{O}_\text{tZ}^\text{I}$ in the SM effective field theory are considered that may modify the interactions between top quarks and electroweak bosons. The obtained results are consistent with the SM prediction within two standard deviations, and exclusion limits on the associated Wilson coefficients of $-$2.7 $\lt$$c_\text{tW}^\text{I}$$\lt$ 2.5 and $-$0.2 $\lt$$c_\text{tZ}^\text{I}$$\lt$ 2.0 are set at 95% confidence level. The largest discrepancy is observed in $c_\text{tZ}^\text{I}$ where data is consistent with positive values, with an observed local significance with respect to the SM hypothesis of 2.5 standard deviations, when only linear terms are considered.
The measurement of the charge asymmetry in top quark pair events with highly Lorentz-boosted top quarks decaying to a single lepton and jets is presented. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The selection is optimized for top quarks produced with large Lorentz boosts, resulting in nonisolated leptons and overlapping jets. The top quark charge asymmetry is measured for events with a $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ invariant mass larger than 750 GeV and corrected for detector and acceptance effects using a binned maximum likelihood fit. The measured top quark charge asymmetry of (0.42 $_{-0.69}^{+0.64}$)% is in good agreement with the standard model prediction at next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamic perturbation theory with next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections. The result is also presented for two invariant mass ranges, 750-900 and $\gt$ 900 GeV.
The results of a search for new heavy $W^\prime$ bosons decaying to an electron or muon and a neutrino using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV are presented. The dataset was collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. As no excess of events above the Standard Model prediction is observed, the results are used to set upper limits on the $W^\prime$ boson cross-section times branching ratio to an electron or muon and a neutrino as a function of the $W^\prime$ mass. Assuming a $W^\prime$ boson with the same couplings as the Standard Model $W$ boson, $W^\prime$ masses below 5.1 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.
Upper limits at the 95% CL on the cross section for SSM W' production and decay to the electron+neutrino channel as a function of the W' pole mass.
Upper limits at the 95% CL on the cross section for SSM W' production and decay to the muon+neutrino channel as a function of the W' pole mass.
Combined (electron and muon channels) upper limits at the 95% CL on the cross section for SSM W' production and decay to a single lepton generation as a function of the W' pole mass.
Jet substructure observables have significantly extended the search program for physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider. The state-of-the-art tools have been motivated by theoretical calculations, but there has never been a direct comparison between data and calculations of jet substructure observables that are accurate beyond leading-logarithm approximation. Such observables are significant not only for probing the collinear regime of QCD that is largely unexplored at a hadron collider, but also for improving the understanding of jet substructure properties that are used in many studies at the Large Hadron Collider. This Letter documents a measurement of the first jet substructure quantity at a hadron collider to be calculated at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm accuracy. The normalized, differential cross-section is measured as a function of log$_{10}\rho^2$, where $\rho$ is the ratio of the soft-drop mass to the ungroomed jet transverse momentum. This quantity is measured in dijet events from 32.9 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector. The data are unfolded to correct for detector effects and compared to precise QCD calculations and leading-logarithm particle-level Monte Carlo simulations.
Data from Fig 3a. The unfolded $log_{10}(\rho^2)$ distribution for anti-kt R=0.8 jets with $p_T$(lead) > 600 GeV, after the soft drop algorithm is applied for $\beta$ = 0, in data. All uncertainties described in the text are shown on the data; the uncertainties from the calculations are shown on each one. The distributions are normalized to the integrated cross section, $\sigma$(resum), measured in the resummation region, $-3.7 < log_{10}(\rho^2) < -1.7$.
A detailed study of multi-particle azimuthal correlations is presented using $pp$ data at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ and 13 TeV, and $p$+Pb data at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The azimuthal correlations are probed using four-particle cumulants $c_{n}\{4\}$ and flow coefficients $v_n\{4\}=(-c_{n}\{4\})^{1/4}$ for $n=2$ and 3, with the goal of extracting long-range multi-particle azimuthal correlation signals and suppressing the short-range correlations. The values of $c_{n}\{4\}$ are obtained as a function of the average number of charged particles per event, $\left\langle N_{\rm{ch}} \right\rangle$, using the recently proposed two-subevent and three-subevent cumulant methods, and compared with results obtained with the standard cumulant method. The three-subevent method is found to be least sensitive to short-range correlations, which originate mostly from jets with a positive contribution to $c_{n}\{4\}$. The three-subevent method gives a negative $c_{2}\{4\}$, and therefore a well-defined $v_2\{4\}$, nearly independent of $\left\langle N_{\rm{ch}} \right\rangle$, which provides direct evidence that the long-range multi-particle azimuthal correlations persist to events with low multiplicity. Furthermore, $v_2\{4\}$ is found to be smaller than the $v_2\{2\}$ measured using the two-particle correlation method, as expected for long-range collective behavior. Finally, the measured values of $v_2\{4\}$ and $v_2\{2\}$ are used to estimate the number of sources relevant for the initial eccentricity in the collision geometry.
The c_2{4} values calculated for charged particles with 0.3 < pT < 3 GeV with the 3-subevent cumulant method from the 13 TeV pp data. The event averaging is performed for N_{ch}^{Sel} calculated for 0.3 < pT < 3 GeV.
The c_2{4} values calculated for charged particles with 0.3 < pT < 3 GeV with the 3-subevent cumulant method from the 13 TeV pp data. The event averaging is performed for N_{ch}^{Sel} calculated for pT > 0.2 GeV.
The c_2{4} values calculated for charged particles with 0.3 < pT < 3 GeV with the 3-subevent cumulant method from the 13 TeV pp data. The event averaging is performed for N_{ch}^{Sel} calculated for pT > 0.4 GeV.
A measurement is presented of a ratio observable that provides a measure of the azimuthal correlations among jets with large transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$. This observable is measured in multijet events over the range of $p_\mathrm{T}$ = 360-3170 GeV based on data collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 134 fb$^{-1}$. The results are compared with predictions from Monte Carlo parton-shower event generator simulations, as well as with fixed-order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD) predictions at next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy obtained with different parton distribution functions (PDFs) and corrected for nonperturbative and electroweak effects. Data and theory agree within uncertainties. From the comparison of the measured observable with the pQCD prediction obtained with the NNPDF3.1 NLO PDFs, the strong coupling at the Z boson mass scale is $\alpha_\mathrm{S}(m_\mathrm{Z})$ = 0.1177 $\pm$ 0.0013 (exp) $_{-0.0073}^{+0.0116}$ (theo) = 0.1177 $_{-0.0074}^{+0.0117}$, where the total uncertainty is dominated by the scale dependence of the fixed-order predictions. A test of the running of $\alpha_\mathrm{S}(m_\mathrm{Z})$ in the TeV region shows no deviation from the expected NLO pQCD behaviour.
Measurements are presented of the B$^0_\mathrm{S}$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ branching fraction and effective lifetime, as well as results of a search for the B$^0$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ decay in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at the LHC. The analysis is based on data collected with the CMS detector in 2016-2018 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The branching fraction of the B$^0_\mathrm{S}$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ decay and the effective B$^0_\mathrm{S}$ meson lifetime are the most precise single measurements to date. No evidence for the B$^0$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ decay has been found. All results are found to be consistent with the standard model predictions and previous measurements.
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