This article presents a search for new resonances decaying into a $Z$ or $W$ boson and a 125 GeV Higgs boson $h$, and it targets the $\nu\bar{\nu}b\bar{b}$, $\ell^+\ell^-b\bar{b}$, or $\ell^{\pm}{\nu}b\bar{b}$ final states, where $\ell=e$ or $\mu$, in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The data used correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the LHC at CERN. The search is conducted by examining the reconstructed invariant or transverse mass distributions of $Zh$ or $Wh$ candidates for evidence of a localised excess in the mass range from 220 GeV to 5 TeV. No significant excess is observed and 95% confidence-level upper limits between 1.3 pb and 0.3 fb are placed on the production cross section times branching fraction of neutral and charged spin-1 resonances and CP-odd scalar bosons. These limits are converted into constraints on the parameter space of the Heavy Vector Triplet model and the two-Higgs-doublet model.
Acceptance * reconstruction efficiency for the P P --> Zprime --> Zh --> vvbb/cc signals in the 0-lepton channel.
Acceptance * reconstruction efficiency for the P P --> Zprime --> Zh --> llbb/cc signals in the 2-lepton channel.
Acceptance * reconstruction efficiency for the P P --> bbA --> Zh --> vvbb signals in the 0-lepton channel.
A search for a charged Higgs boson, $H^{\pm}$, produced in top-quark decays, $t \rightarrow H^{\pm}b$, is presented. The search targets $H^{\pm}$ decays into a bottom and a charm quark, $H^{\pm} \rightarrow cb$. The analysis focuses on a selection enriched in top-quark pair production, where one top quark decays into a leptonically decaying $W$ boson and a bottom quark, and the other top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark. This topology leads to a lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets containing $b$-hadrons, and deploys a neural network classifier that uses the kinematic differences between the signal and the background. The search uses a dataset of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.15% (0.09%) and 0.42% (0.25%) are derived for the product of branching fractions $\mathscr{B}(t\rightarrow H^{\pm}b) \times \mathscr{B}(H^{\pm}\rightarrow cb)$ for charged Higgs boson masses between 60 and 160 GeV, assuming the SM production of the top-quark pairs.
The observed 95% CL upper limits on $\mathscr{B}=\mathscr{B}(t\rightarrow H^{\pm}b) \times \mathscr{B}(H^{\pm}\rightarrow cb)$ as a function of $m_{H^{\pm}}$ and the expectation (dashed) under the background-only hypothesis. The inner green and outer yellow shaded bands show the $\pm 1\sigma$ and $\pm 2\sigma$ uncertainties of the expected limits. The exclusion limits are presented for $m_{H^{\pm}}$ between 60 and 160 GeV with 10 GeV $m_{H^{\pm}}$ spacing and linear interpolation between adjacent mass points. Superimposed on the upper limits, the predictions from the 3HDM are shown, corresponding to three benchmark values for the parameters $X$, $Y$, and $Z$
Pre-fit event yields in each of the nine analysis regions. The $H^{\pm}$ signal yields for $m_{H^{\pm}}=130$ GeV and $m_{H^{\pm}}=70$ GeV are normalised to $\mathscr{B}_{\mathrm{ref}}=1\%$. The quoted uncertainties are the sum in quadrature of statistical and systematic uncertainties of the yields, computed taking into account correlations among processes resulting from the data-based $t\bar{t}$ correction procedure.
Post-fit yields in each of the nine analysis regions considered. The total prediction is shown after the fit to data under the signal-plus-background hypothesis assuming $H^{\pm}$ signal with $m_{H^{\pm}}=130$ GeV. The predicted yileds for the $H^{\pm}$ signal with $m_{H^{\pm}}=70$ GeV are also shown for reference. The best fit-values of $\mathscr{B}$ for $H^{\pm}$ signal with $m_{H^{\pm}}=130$ GeV and $m_{H^{\pm}}=70$ GeV are 0.16% and 0.07% respectively. The quoted uncertainties are the sum in quadrature of statistical and systematic uncertainties of the yields, computed taking into account correlations among nuisance parameters and among processes.
Electroweak symmetry breaking explains the origin of the masses of elementary particles through their interactions with the Higgs field. Besides the measurements of the Higgs boson properties, the study of the scattering of massive vector bosons with spin one allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed. Among all processes related to vector-boson scattering, the electroweak production of two jets and a $Z$-boson pair is a rare and important one. Here we report the observation of this process from proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139/fb recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. We consider two different final states originating from the decays of the $Z$-boson pair - one containing four charged leptons and the other containing two charged leptons and two neutrinos. The hypothesis of no electroweak production is rejected with a statistical significance of 5.7 $\sigma$, and the measured cross-section for electroweak production is consistent with the standard model prediction. In addition, we report cross-sections for inclusive production of a $Z$-boson pair and two jets for the two final states.
Signal strength and significance of EW ZZjj processes
Measured and predicted fiducial cross-sections in both the lllljj and ll$\nu\nu$jj channels for the inclusive ZZjj processes. Uncertainties due to different sources are presented.
Observed and expected multivariate discriminant distribution in the $\ell\ell\ell\ell jj$ QCD CR.
A search for pair production of doubly charged Higgs bosons ($H^{\pm \pm}$), each decaying into a pair of prompt, isolated, highly energetic leptons with the same electric charge, is presented. The search uses a proton-proton collision data sample at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. This analysis focuses on same-charge leptonic decays, $H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow \ell^{\pm} \ell^{\prime \pm}$ where $\ell, \ell^\prime=e, \mu, \tau$, in two-, three-, and four-lepton channels, but only considers final states which include electrons or muons. No evidence of a signal is observed. Corresponding limits on the production cross-section and consequently a lower limit on $m(H^{\pm \pm})$ are derived at 95% confidence level. Assuming that the branching ratios to each of the possible leptonic final states are equal, $\mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow e^\pm e^\pm) = \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow e^\pm \mu^\pm) = \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow \mu^\pm \mu^\pm) = \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow e^\pm \tau^\pm) = \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow \mu^\pm \tau^\pm) = \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm \pm} \rightarrow \tau^\pm \tau^\pm) = 1/6$, the observed lower limit on the mass of a doubly charged Higgs boson is 1080 GeV within the left-right symmetric type-II seesaw model, which is an improvement over previous limits. Additionally, a lower limit of $m(H^{\pm \pm})$ = 900 GeV is obtained in the context of the Zee-Babu neutrino mass model.
LO, NLO cross-sections and K-factors for the pair-production of doubly charged Higgs bosons in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The K-factors (K=$\sigma_{NLO}/\sigma_{LO}$) are identical for $H^{\pm\pm}_L$, $H^{\pm\pm}_R$, and $k^{\pm\pm}$. The values are calculated using the NNPDF3.1NLO and NNPDF2.3LO PDF sets.
Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL upper limits on the $H^{\pm\pm}$ pair production cross-section as a function of $m(H^{\pm\pm})$ resulting from the combination of all analysis channels, assuming $\sum_{\ell \ell^\prime} \mathcal{B}(H^{\pm\pm} \rightarrow \ell^{\pm} \ell^{\prime \pm})=100%$, where $\ell, \ell^\prime = e, \mu, \tau$.
Distribution of $m(e^{\pm},e^{\pm})_{\mathrm{lead}}$ in the electron-electron signal region after the background-only fit.
Measurements of joint-polarisation states of $W$ and $Z$ gauge bosons in $W^{\pm}Z$ production are presented. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $139$ fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The $W^{\pm}Z$ candidate events are reconstructed using leptonic decay modes of the gauge bosons into electrons and muons. The simultaneous pair-production of longitudinally polarised vector bosons is measured for the first time with a significance of $7.1$ standard deviations. The measured joint helicity fractions integrated over the fiducial region are $f_{\mathrm{00}} = 0.067 \pm 0.010$, $f_{\mathrm{0T}} = 0.110 \pm 0.029$, $f_{\mathrm{T0}} = 0.179 \pm 0.023$ and $f_{\mathrm{TT}} = 0.644 \pm 0.032$, in agreement with the next-to-leading-order Standard Model predictions. Individual helicity fractions of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons are also measured and found to be consistent with joint helicity fractions within the expected amount of correlations. Both the joint and individual helicity fractions are also measured separately in $W^+Z$ and $W^-Z$ events. Inclusive and differential cross sections for several kinematic observables sensitive to polarisation are presented.
Measured fiducial Born-level cross section for a single leptonic decay channel $\ell'^\pm \nu \ell^+ \ell'^-$ of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons, where $\ell, \ell' = e, \mu$. The relative uncertainties are reported as percentages. The systematic uncertainties are in order of appearance: total uncorrelated systematic and correlated systematics related respectively to unfolding, electrons, muons, jets, reducible and irreducible backgrounds and pileup. The last bin is a cross section for all events above the lower end of the bin.
Correlation matrix for the unfolded cross section.
Measured fiducial Born-level cross section for a single leptonic decay channel $\ell'^\pm \nu \ell^+ \ell'^-$ of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons, where $\ell, \ell' = e, \mu$. The relative uncertainties are reported as percentages. The systematic uncertainties are in order of appearance: total uncorrelated systematic and correlated systematics related respectively to unfolding, electrons, muons, jets, reducible and irreducible backgrounds and pileup. The last bin is a cross section for all events above the lower end of the bin.
A search for a new pseudoscalar $a$-boson produced in events with a top-quark pair, where the $a$-boson decays into a pair of muons, is performed using $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $139\, \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. The search targets the final state where only one top quark decays to an electron or muon, resulting in a signature with three leptons $e\mu\mu$ and $\mu\mu\mu$. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed and upper limits are set on two signal models: $pp \rightarrow t\bar{t}a$ and $pp \rightarrow t\bar{t}$ with $t \rightarrow H^\pm b$, $H^\pm \rightarrow W^\pm a$, where $a\rightarrow\mu\mu$, in the mass ranges $15$ GeV $ < m_a < 72$ GeV and $120$ GeV $ \leq m_{H^{\pm}} \leq 160$ GeV.
Comparison between data and expected background for the on-$Z$-boson control region in the $e\mu\mu$ final state. The bins correspond to different jet and $b$-jet multiplicities. Rare background processes include $ZZ+$jets, $WWZ$, $WZZ$, $ZZZ$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$.
Comparison between data and expected background for the on-$Z$boson control region in the $\mu\mu\mu$ final state. The bins correspond to different jet and $b$-jet multiplicities. Rare background processes include $ZZ+$jets, $WWZ$, $WZZ$, $ZZZ$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$.
Di-muon mass distribution for the $e\mu\mu$ signal region for data and expected background. The expected signal distribution for $m_a = 35$ GeV is shown assuming $\sigma(t\bar{t}a)\times \text{Br}(a\rightarrow\mu\mu) = 4$ fb. Rare background processes include $ZZ+$jets, $WWZ$, $WZZ$, $ZZZ$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$.
Properties of the underlying-event in $pp$ interactions are investigated primarily via the strange hadrons $K_{S}^{0}$, $\Lambda$ and $\bar\Lambda$, as reconstructed using the ATLAS detector at the LHC in minimum-bias $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. The hadrons are reconstructed via the identification of the displaced two-particle vertices corresponding to the decay modes $K_{S}^{0}\rightarrow\pi^+\pi^-$, $\Lambda\rightarrow\pi^-p$ and $\bar\Lambda\rightarrow\pi^+\bar{p}$. These are used in the construction of underlying-event observables in azimuthal regions computed relative to the leading charged-particle jet in the event. None of the hadronisation and underlying-event physics models considered can describe the data over the full kinematic range considered. Events with a leading charged-particle jet in the range of $10 < p_T \leq 40$ GeV are studied using the number of prompt charged particles in the transverse region. The ratio $N(\Lambda + \bar\Lambda)/N(K_{S}^{0})$ as a function of the number of such charged particles varies only slightly over this range. This disagrees with the expectations of some of the considered Monte Carlo models.
Mean multiplicity of $K^{0}_{S}$ per unit $(\eta, \phi)$ in the away region vs. leading-jet $p_{T}$
Statistical covariance between bins of Table 1
Mean multiplicity of $K^{0}_{S}$ per unit $(\eta, \phi)$ in the towards region vs. leading-jet $p_{T}$
Searches for the exclusive decays of Higgs and $Z$ bosons into a vector quarkonium state and a photon are performed in the $\mu^+\mu^- \gamma$ final state with a proton$-$proton collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $139$ fb$^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are compatible with the expected backgrounds. The 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching fractions of the Higgs boson decays into $J/\psi \gamma$, $\psi(2S) \gamma$, and $\Upsilon(1S,2S,3S) \gamma$ are found to be $2.0\times10^{-4}$, $10.5\times10^{-4}$, and $(2.5,4.2,3.4)\times10^{-4}$, respectively, assuming Standard Model production of the Higgs boson. The corresponding 95% CL upper limits on the branching fractions of the $Z$ boson decays are $1.2\times10^{-6}$, $2.4\times10^{-6}$, and $(1.1,1.3,2.4)\times10^{-6}$. An observed 95% CL interval of $(-133,175)$ is obtained for the $\kappa_c/\kappa_\gamma$ ratio of Higgs boson coupling modifiers, and a 95% CL interval of $(-37,40)$ is obtained for $\kappa_b/\kappa_\gamma$.
Numbers of observed and expected background events for the $m_{\mu^+\mu^-\gamma}$ ranges of interest. Each expected background and the corresponding uncertainty of its mean is obtained from a background-only fit to the data; the uncertainty does not take into account statistical fluctuations in each mass range. Expected $Z$ and Higgs boson signal contributions, with their corresponding total systematic uncertainty, are shown for reference branching fractions of $10^{-6}$ and $10^{-3}$, respectively. The ranges in $m_{\mu^+\mu^-}$ are centred around each quarkonium resonance, with a width driven by the resolution of the detector; in particular, the ranges for the $\Upsilon(nS)$ resonances are based on the resolution in the endcaps. It is noted that the discrepancy between the observed and expected backgrounds for $m_{\mu^+\mu^-} = 9.0$-$9.8$ GeV in the endcaps was found to have a small impact on the observed limit for $Z\rightarrow\Upsilon(1S)\,\gamma$.
Expected, with the corresponding $\pm 1\sigma$ intervals, and observed 95% CL branching fraction upper limits for the Higgs and $Z$ boson decays into a quarkonium state and a photon. Standard Model production of the Higgs boson is assumed. The corresponding upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction $\sigma\times\mathcal{B}$ are also shown.
This paper presents the observation of four-top-quark ($t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$) production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected using the ATLAS detector. Events containing two leptons with the same electric charge or at least three leptons (electrons or muons) are selected. Event kinematics are used to separate signal from background through a multivariate discriminant, and dedicated control regions are used to constrain the dominant backgrounds. The observed (expected) significance of the measured $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ signal with respect to the standard model (SM) background-only hypothesis is 6.1 (4.3) standard deviations. The $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production cross section is measured to be $22.5^{+6.6}_{-5.5}$ fb, consistent with the SM prediction of $12.0 \pm 2.4$ fb within 1.8 standard deviations. Data are also used to set limits on the three-top-quark production cross section, being an irreducible background not measured previously, and to constrain the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling and effective field theory operator coefficients that affect $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ production.
Post-fit distributions for the number of jets ($N_{j}$) in CR $t\bar{t}W^{+}$+jets. The QmisID represents the backgrounds with a mis-assigned charge. HF e and HF $\mu$ are the backgrounds with fake/non-prompt leptons. Mat. Conv. and Low $m_{\gamma*}$ are the material and virtual photon conversions.
Post-fit distributions for the number of jets ($N_{j}$) in CR $t\bar{t}W^{-}$+jets. The QmisID represents the backgrounds with a mis-assigned charge. HF e and HF $\mu$ are the backgrounds with fake/non-prompt leptons. Mat. Conv. and Low $m_{\gamma*}$ are the material and virtual photon conversions.
Post-fit distributions for the number of jets ($N_{j}$) in CR 1b(+). The QmisID represents the backgrounds with a mis-assigned charge. HF e and HF $\mu$ are the backgrounds with fake/non-prompt leptons. Mat. Conv. and Low $m_{\gamma*}$ are the material and virtual photon conversions.
A search is reported for excited $\tau$-leptons and leptoquarks in events with two hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons and two or more jets. The search uses proton-proton (pp) collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider in 2015-2018. The total integrated luminosity is 139 fb$^{-1}$. The excited $\tau$-lepton is assumed to be produced and to decay via a four-fermion contact interaction into an ordinary $\tau$-lepton and a quark-antiquark pair. The leptoquarks are assumed to be produced in pairs via the strong interaction, and each leptoquark is assumed to couple to a charm or lighter quark and a $\tau$-lepton. No excess over the background prediction is observed. Excited $\tau$-leptons with masses below 2.8 TeV are excluded at 95% CL in scenarios with the contact interaction scale $\Lambda$ set to 10 TeV. At the extreme limit of model validity where $\Lambda$ is set equal to the excited $\tau$-lepton mass, excited $\tau$-leptons with masses below 4.6 TeV are excluded. Leptoquarks with masses below 1.3 TeV are excluded at 95% CL if their branching ratio to a charm quark and a $\tau$-lepton equals 1. The analysis does not exploit flavour-tagging in the signal region.
Observed and expected upper 95% CL limit on the $\tau^\ast$ production cross-section as a function of $m_{\tau^\ast}$ for a fixed value of the contact interaction scale, $\Lambda = 10$ TeV.
Observed and expected lower 95% CL limit on the contact interaction scale $\Lambda$ as a function of $m_{\tau^\ast}$.
Observed and expected upper 95% CL limit on the LQ production cross-section as a function of $m_\mathrm{LQ}$. The LQ couples to a tau lepton and a c-quark. The limits are also valid for scenarios in which the LQ couples to lighter quarks.
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