Production of $B_c^+$ mesons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV is studied with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $2.0~{\rm fb}^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment. The ratio of production cross-sections times branching fractions between the $B_c^+\to J/\psi \pi^+$ and $B^+\to J/\psi K^+$ decays is measured as a function of transverse momentum and rapidity in the regions $0 < p_{\rm T} < 20~{\rm GeV}/c$ and $2.0 < y < 4.5$. The ratio in this kinematic range is measured to be $(0.683\pm0.018\pm0.009)\%$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.
Measurements of the differential branching fraction and angular moments of the decay $B^0 \to K^+ \pi^- \mu^+ \mu^-$ in the $K^+\pi^-$ invariant mass range $1330<m(K^+ \pi^-)<1530~MeV/c^2$ are presented. Proton-proton collision data are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 $fb^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment. Differential branching fraction measurements are reported in five bins of the invariant mass squared of the dimuon system, $q^2$, between 0.1 and 8.0 $GeV^2/c^4$. For the first time, an angular analysis sensitive to the S-, P- and D-wave contributions of this rare decay is performed. The set of 40 normalised angular moments describing the decay is presented for the $q^2$ range 1.1--6.0 $GeV^2/c^4$.
The first measurements of skewness and kurtosis of mean transverse momentum ($\langle p_\mathrm{T}\rangle$) fluctuations are reported in Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, Xe$-$Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$$=$ 5.44 TeV and pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector. The measurements are carried out as a function of system size $\langle \mathrm{d}N_\mathrm{ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta\rangle_{|\eta|<0.5}^{1/3}$, using charged particles with transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) and pseudorapidity ($\eta$), in the range $0.2 < p_\mathrm{T} < 3.0$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta| < 0.8$, respectively. In Pb$-$Pb and Xe$-$Xe collisions, positive skewness is observed in the fluctuations of $\langle p_\mathrm{T}\rangle$ for all centralities, which is significantly larger than what would be expected in the scenario of independent particle emission. This positive skewness is considered a crucial consequence of the hydrodynamic evolution of the hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions. Furthermore, similar observations of positive skewness for minimum bias pp collisions are also reported here. Kurtosis of $\langle p_\mathrm{T}\rangle$ fluctuations is found to be in good agreement with the kurtosis of Gaussian distribution, for most central Pb$-$Pb collisions. Hydrodynamic model calculations with MUSIC using Monte Carlo Glauber initial conditions are able to explain the measurements of both skewness and kurtosis qualitatively from semicentral to central collisions in Pb--Pb system. Color reconnection mechanism in PYTHIA8 model seems to play a pivotal role in capturing the qualitative behavior of the same measurements in pp collisions.
A search is conducted for the electroweak pair production of a chargino and a neutralino $pp \rightarrow \tilde\chi^\pm_1 \tilde\chi^0_2$, where the chargino decays into the lightest neutralino and a $W$ boson, $\tilde\chi^\pm_1 \rightarrow \tilde\chi^0_1 W^{\pm}$, while the neutralino decays into the lightest neutralino and a Standard Model-like 125 GeV Higgs boson, $\tilde\chi^0_2 \rightarrow \tilde\chi^0_1 h$. Fully hadronic, semileptonic, diphoton, and multilepton (electrons, muons) final states with missing transverse momentum are considered in this search. Higgs bosons in the final state are identified by either two jets originating from bottom quarks ($h \rightarrow b\bar{b}$), two photons ($h \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$), or leptons from the decay modes $h \rightarrow WW$, $h \rightarrow ZZ$ or $h \rightarrow \tau \tau$. The analysis is based on 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Observations are consistent with the Standard Model expectations, and 95% confidence-level limits of up to 680 GeV in $\tilde\chi^\pm_1/\tilde\chi^0_2$ mass are set in the context of a simplified supersymmetric model.
Measurements of the yield and nuclear modification factor, $R_\mathrm{ AA}$, for inclusive jet production are performed using 0.49 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV and 25 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ data at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R=0.4$ and are measured over the transverse momentum range of 40-1000 GeV in six rapidity intervals covering $|y|<2.8$. The magnitude of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ increases with increasing jet transverse momentum, reaching a value of approximately 0.6 at 1 TeV in the most central collisions. The magnitude of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ also increases towards peripheral collisions. The value of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ is independent of rapidity at low jet transverse momenta, but it is observed to decrease with increasing rapidity at high transverse momenta.
A search for $W'$-boson production in the $W' \rightarrow t\bar{b} \rightarrow q\bar{q}' b\bar{b}$ decay channel is presented using 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. The search is interpreted in terms of both a left-handed and a right-handed chiral $W'$ boson within the mass range 1-5 TeV. Identification of the hadronically decaying top quark is performed using jet substructure tagging techniques based on a shower deconstruction algorithm. No significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed and the results are expressed as upper limits on the $W' \rightarrow t\bar{b}$ production cross-section times branching ratio as a function of the $W'$-boson mass. These limits exclude $W'$ bosons with right-handed couplings with masses below 3.0 TeV and $W'$ bosons with left-handed couplings with masses below 2.9 TeV, at the 95% confidence level.
A measurement of fiducial and differential cross-sections for $W^+W^-$ production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$ is presented. Events with one electron and one muon are selected, corresponding to the decay of the diboson system as $WW\rightarrow e^{\pm}\nu\mu^{\mp}\nu$. To suppress top-quark background, events containing jets with a transverse momentum exceeding 35 GeV are not included in the measurement phase space. The fiducial cross-section, six differential distributions and the cross-section as a function of the jet-veto transverse momentum threshold are measured and compared with several theoretical predictions. Constraints on anomalous electroweak gauge boson self-interactions are also presented in the framework of a dimension-six effective field theory.
The elliptic flow of muons from the decay of charm and bottom hadrons is measured in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 150 pb$^{-1}$ recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The muons from heavy-flavor decay are separated from light-hadron decay muons using momentum imbalance between the tracking and muon spectrometers. The heavy-flavor decay muons are further separated into those from charm decay and those from bottom decay using the distance-of-closest-approach to the collision vertex. The measurement is performed for muons in the transverse momentum range 4-7 GeV and pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<2.4$. A significant non-zero elliptic anisotropy coefficient $v_{2}$ is observed for muons from charm decays, while the $v_{2}$ value for muons from bottom decays is consistent with zero within uncertainties.
A search for associated production of a $Z$ boson with an open charm meson is presented using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1.0\,\mathrm{fb}^{-`}$ of proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7\,TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. %% Seven candidate events for associated production of a $Z$ boson with a $D^0$ meson and four candidate events for a $Z$ boson with a $D^+$ meson are observed with a combined significance of 5.1standard deviations. The production cross-sections in the forward region are measured to be $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^-\!,D^0} = 2.50\pm1.12\pm0.22pb$$ $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^-\!,D^+} = 0.44\pm0.23\pm0.03pb,$$ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.
A combination of the searches for pair-produced vector-like partners of the top and bottom quarks in various decay channels ($T$$\rightarrow$$Zt/Wb/Ht$, $B$$\rightarrow$$Zb/Wt/Hb$) is performed using 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model background prediction in all individual searches. Therefore, combined 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the production cross-section for a range of vector-like quark scenarios, significantly improving upon the reach of the individual searches. Model-independent limits are set assuming the vector-like quarks decay to Standard Model particles. A singlet $T$ is excluded for masses below 1.31 TeV and a singlet $B$ is excluded for masses below 1.22 TeV. Assuming a weak isospin $(T,B)$ doublet and $|V_{Tb}| \ll |V_{tB}|$, $T$ and $B$ masses below 1.37 TeV are excluded.
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