Protons consist of three valence quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, held together by gluons and a sea of quark-antiquark pairs. Collectively, quarks and gluons are referred to as partons. In a proton-proton collision, typically only one parton of each proton undergoes a hard scattering - referred to as single-parton scattering - leaving the remainder of each proton only slightly disturbed. Here, we report the study of double- and triple-parton scatterings through the simultaneous production of three J/$\psi$ mesons, which consist of a charm quark-antiquark pair, in proton-proton collisions recorded with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. We observed this process - reconstructed through the decays of J/$\psi$ mesons into pairs of oppositely charged muons - with a statistical significance above five standard deviations. We measured the inclusive fiducial cross section to be 272 $^{+141}_{-104}$ (stat) $\pm$ 17 (syst) fb, and compared it to theoretical expectations for triple-J/$\psi$ meson production in single-, double- and triple-parton scattering scenarios. Assuming factorization of multiple hard-scattering probabilities in terms of single-parton scattering cross sections, double- and triple-parton scattering are the dominant contributions for the measured process.
Dimuon invariant mass ($m$), proper decay-length ($L$), transverse momentum ($p_{T}$), rapidity ($y$), and azimuthal angle ($\phi$) of each of the three $J/\psi$ candidates measured in the six triple-$J/\psi$ events passing our selection criteria.
Measured DPS effective cross section
$pp \rightarrow J/\psi J/\psi J/\psi X~$ fiducial cross section
The cross sections for inclusive and Mueller-Navelet dijet production are measured as a function of the rapidity separation between the jets in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76 TeV for jets with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 35 GeV and rapidity $\vert y\vert$$\lt$ 4.7. Various dijet production cross section ratios are also measured. A veto on additional jets with $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 20 GeV is introduced to improve the sensitivity to the effects of the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) evolution. The measurement is compared with the predictions of various Monte Carlo models based on leading-order and next-to-leading-order calculations including the Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi leading-logarithm (LL) parton shower as well as the LL BFKL resummation.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the cross section dσincl/d∆y.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the cross section dσMN/d∆y.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the ratio Rincl.
Inclusive and differential cross sections of single top quark production in association with a Z boson are measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the CMS experiment. Events are selected based on the presence of three leptons, electrons or muons, associated with leptonic Z boson and top quark decays. The measurement yields an inclusive cross section of 87.9 $_{-7.3}^{+7.5}$ (stat) $_{-6.0}^{+7.3}$ (syst) fb for a dilepton invariant mass greater than 30 GeV, in agreement with standard model (SM) calculations and the most precise determination to date. The ratio between the cross sections for the top quark and the top antiquark production in association with a Z boson is measured as 2.37 $_{-0.42}^{+0.56}$ (stat) ${}_{-0.13}^{+0.27}$ (syst). Differential measurements at parton and particle levels are performed for the first time. Several kinematic observables are considered to study the modeling of the process. Results are compared to theoretical predictions with different assumptions on the source of the initial-state b quark and found to be in agreement, within the uncertainties. Additionally, the spin asymmetry, which is sensitive to the top quark polarization, is determined from the differential distribution of the polarization angle at parton level to be 0.54 $\pm$ 0.16 (stat) $\pm$ 0.06 (syst), in agreement with SM predictions.
Numerical results of inclusive cross section measurements. Each row represents a measurement: "tZq" for fully inclusive, "tZq_top" for the top quark channel, "tZq_antitop" for the top antiquark channel, "ratio" for the ratio measurement. The columns are the central value, statistical error up/down, systematic error up/down. All values are in fb, except for the ratio (dimensionless).
Numerical representation of impact plot.
Simulated signal, total background, and observed data in the signal category with exactly 1 b jet and 2-3 jets for the three data-taking years combined. For the uncertainty on the signal and background, both the total (systematic+statistical) and statistical uncertainties are provided. The uncertainty on the data is the (statistical) Poisson uncertainty. Note that this is the prefit version.
Many measurements at the LHC require efficient identification of heavy-flavour jets, i.e. jets originating from bottom (b) or charm (c) quarks. An overview of the algorithms used to identify c jets is described and a novel method to calibrate them is presented. This new method adjusts the entire distributions of the outputs obtained when the algorithms are applied to jets of different flavours. It is based on an iterative approach exploiting three distinct control regions that are enriched with either b jets, c jets, or light-flavour and gluon jets. Results are presented in the form of correction factors evaluated using proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2017. The closure of the method is tested by applying the measured correction factors on simulated data sets and checking the agreement between the adjusted simulation and collision data. Furthermore, a validation is performed by testing the method on pseudodata, which emulate different miscalibration conditions. The calibrated results enable the use of the full distributions of heavy-flavour identification algorithm outputs, e.g. as inputs to machine-learning models. Thus, they are expected to increase the sensitivity of future physics analyses.
The shape calibration SF values as a function of CvsL and CvsB for DeepCSV-based c taggers for c jets
The shape calibration SF values as a function of CvsL and CvsB for DeepCSV-based c taggers for b jets
The shape calibration SF values as a function of CvsL and CvsB for DeepCSV-based c taggers for light-flavour jets
Searches are conducted for new spin-0 or spin-1 bosons using events where a Higgs boson with mass $125$ GeV decays into four leptons ($\ell =$$e$,$\mu$). This decay is presumed to occur via an intermediate state which contains two on-shell, promptly decaying bosons: $H \rightarrow XX/ZX \rightarrow 4\ell$, where the new boson $X$ has a mass between 1 and 60 GeV. The search uses $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The data are found to be consistent with Standard Model expectations. Limits are set on fiducial cross sections and on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to decay into $XX/ZX$, improving those from previous publications by a factor between two and four. Limits are also set on mixing parameters relevant in extensions of the Standard Model containing a dark sector where $X$ is interpreted to be a dark boson.
Distribution of $\langle m_{\ell\ell}\rangle$ for events selected in the HM $H\to XX \to 4\ell$ $\, ( 15 \,\text{GeV} < m_{X} < 60 \,\text{GeV})$ analysis. (Pre-fit background expectations and signal templates for $m_{Z_d} = 20 \,\text{GeV}$, $35 \,\text{GeV}$, and $55 \,\text{GeV}$ are given. The latter's yields are normalized with $\sigma(pp\to H\to Z_dZ_d\to 4\ell) =\frac{1}{10}\sigma_{\textrm{SM}}(pp\to H\to ZZ^*\to 4\ell)$.
Distribution of $\langle m_{\ell\ell}\rangle$ for events selected in the LM $H\to XX \to 4\mu$ $( 1 \,\text{GeV} < m_{X} < 15 \, \text{GeV} )$ analysis. The regions of 2 GeV to 4.4 GeV, and 8 GeV to 12 GeV are each excluded by the quarkonia veto. No data events pass this selection. Background expectations are pre-fit. Signal templates for $m_{Z_d} = 2 \,\text{GeV}$, $6 \,\text{GeV}$, and $15 \,\text{GeV}$ are given. All signal yields are normalized with $\sigma(pp\to H\to aa\to 4\mu) = \frac{1}{10}\sigma_{\textrm{SM}}(pp\to H\to ZZ^*\to 4\mu) = 0.15 \text{ fb}$ .
Distribution of $m_{34}$ for data and background events in the mass range $115 \,\text{GeV} < m_{4\ell} < 130 \,\text{GeV}$ after the $H\to ZX\to 4\ell$ selection. The background yield for the $H \to ZZ^* \to 4\ell$ process is post-fit and constrained to $1.2 \pm 0.16$ times the Standard Model expectation. Three $H \to ZZ_d \to 4\ell$ signal templates are shown for $Z_d$ masses of $m_{Z_d} = 20 \,\text{GeV}$, $35 \,\text{GeV}$, and $55 \,\text{GeV}$. They are normalized to a branching ratio of $\textrm{BR}(H\rightarrow ZZ_d \rightarrow 4\ell) = \frac{1}{10}\textrm{BR}(H\rightarrow ZZ^*\rightarrow 4\ell)$.
A search for long-lived particles (LLPs) produced in association with a Z boson is presented. The study is performed using data from proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment during 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 117 fb$^{-1}$. The LLPs are assumed to decay to a pair of standard model quarks that are identified as displaced jets within the CMS tracker system. Triggers and selections based on Z boson decays to electron or muon pairs improve the sensitivity to light LLPs (down to 15 GeV). This search provides sensitivity to beyond the standard model scenarios which predict LLPs produced in association with a Z boson. In particular, the results are interpreted in the context of exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of scalar LLPs (H $\to$ SS). The Higgs boson decay branching fraction is constrained to values less than 6% for proper decay lengths of 10-100 mm and for LLP masses between 40 and 55 GeV. In the case of low-mass ($\approx$ 15 GeV) scalar particles that subsequently decay to a pair of b quarks, the search is sensitive to branching fractions $\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ SS) $\lt$ 20% for proper decay lengths of 10-50 mm. The use of associated production with a Z boson increases the sensitivity to low-mass LLPs of this analysis with respect to gluon fusion searches. In the case of 15 GeV scalar LLPs, the improvement corresponds to a factor of 2 at a proper decay length of 30 mm.
Distributions of the median-log10 impact parameter significance tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
Distributions of the median-log10 track angle tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
Distributions of the alpha max tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
The associated production of a W and a Z boson is studied in final states with multiple leptons produced in proton-proton (pp) collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV using 137 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. A measurement of the total inclusive production cross section yields $\sigma_{\text{tot}}$(pp $\to$ WZ) = 50.6 $\pm$ 0.8 (stat) $\pm$ 1.5 (syst) $\pm$ 1.1 (lumi) $\pm$ 0.5 (theo) pb. Measurements of the fiducial and differential cross sections for several key observables are also performed in all the final-state lepton flavour and charge compositions with a total of three charged leptons, which can be electrons or muons. All results are compared with theoretical predictions computed up to next-to-next-to-leading order in quantum chromodynamics plus next-to-leading order in electroweak theory and for various sets of parton distribution functions. The results include direct measurements of the charge asymmetry and the W and Z vector boson polarization. The first observation of longitudinally polarized W bosons in WZ production is reported. Anomalous gauge couplings are searched for, leading to new constraints on beyond-the-standard-model contributions to the WZ triple gauge coupling.
Distribution of the three leading leptons flavour in the CR-ZZ with uncertainties evaluated after the inclusive cross section fit
Distribution of the jet multiplicity in the CR-ttZ with uncertainties evaluated after the inclusive cross section fit
Distribution of the three leading leptons flavour in the CR-conv with uncertainties evaluated after the inclusive cross section fit
We report measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, for inclusive jet and dijet production in polarized proton-proton collisions at midrapidity and center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 510 GeV, using the high luminosity data sample collected by the STAR experiment in 2013. These measurements complement and improve the precision of previous STAR measurements at the same center-of-mass energy that probe the polarized gluon distribution function at partonic momentum fraction 0.015 $\lesssim x \lesssim$ 0.25. The dijet asymmetries are separated into four jet-pair topologies, which provide further constraints on the $x$ dependence of the polarized gluon distribution function. These measurements are in agreement with previous STAR measurements and with predictions from current next-to-leading order global analyses. They provide more precise data at low dijet invariant mass that will better constraint the shape of the polarized gluon distribution function of the proton.
Parton jet $p_T$ vs $A_{LL}$ values with associated uncertainties.
Parton dijet $M_{inv}$ vs $A_{LL}$ values with associated uncertainties, for topology A.
Parton dijet $M_{inv}$ vs $A_{LL}$ values with associated uncertainties, for topology B.
We report precision measurements of hypernuclei ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ lifetimes obtained from Au+Au collisions at \snn = 3.0 GeV and 7.2 GeV collected by the STAR experiment at RHIC, and the first measurement of ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ mid-rapidity yields in Au+Au collisions at \snn = 3.0 GeV. ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$, being the two simplest bound states composed of hyperons and nucleons, are cornerstones in the field of hypernuclear physics. Their lifetimes are measured to be $221\pm15(\rm stat.)\pm19(\rm syst.)$ ps for ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and $218\pm6(\rm stat.)\pm13(\rm syst.)$ ps for ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$. The $p_T$-integrated yields of ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ are presented in different centrality and rapidity intervals. It is observed that the shape of the rapidity distribution of ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ is different for 0--10% and 10--50% centrality collisions. Thermal model calculations, using the canonical ensemble for strangeness, describes the ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ yield well, while underestimating the ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ yield. Transport models, combining baryonic mean-field and coalescence (JAM) or utilizing dynamical cluster formation via baryonic interactions (PHQMD) for light nuclei and hypernuclei production, approximately describe the measured ${}^3_\Lambda \rm{H}$ and ${}^4_\Lambda \rm{H}$ yields. Our measurements provide means to precisely assess our understanding of the fundamental baryonic interactions with strange quarks, which can impact our understanding of more complicated systems involving hyperons, such as the interior of neutron stars or exotic hypernuclei.
The measured $^{3}_{\Lambda}$H and $^{4}_{\Lambda}$H lifetimes from STAR (2021)
B.R. times dN/dy of $^{3}_{\Lambda}$H vs y in 3 GeV 0-10% Au+Au collisions
B.R. times dN/dy of $^{4}_{\Lambda}$H vs y in 3 GeV 0-10% Au+Au collisions
Measurement by the STAR experiment at RHIC of the cold nuclear matter (CNM) effects experienced by inclusive $J/\psi$ at mid-rapidity in 0-100%$p$+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_{\mathrm{NN}}}}$ = 200 GeV is presented. Such effects are quantified utilizing the nuclear modification factor, $R_{p\mathrm{Au}}$, obtained by taking a ratio of $J/\psi$ yield in $p$+Au collisions to that in $p$+$p$ collisions scaled by the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential $J/\psi$ yield in both $p$+$p$ and $p$+Au collisions is measured through the dimuon decay channel, taking advantage of the trigger capability provided by the Muon Telescope Detector in the RHIC 2015 run. Consequently, the $J/\psi$$R_{p\mathrm{Au}}$ is derived within the transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) range of 0 to 10 GeV/$c$. A suppression of approximately 30% is observed for $p_{\mathrm{T}}<2$ GeV/$c$, while $J/\psi$ $R_{p\mathrm{Au}}$ becomes compatible with unity for $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ greater than 3 GeV/$c$, indicating the $J/\psi$ yield is minimally affected by the CNM effects at high $p_{\mathrm{T}}$. Comparison to a similar measurement from 0-20% central Au+Au collisions reveals that the observed strong $J/\psi$ suppression above 3 Gev/$c$ is mostly due to the hot medium effects, providing strong evidence for the formation of the quark-gluon plasma in these collisions. Several model calculations show qualitative agreement with the measured $J/\psi$ $R_{p\mathrm{Au}}$, while their agreement with the $J/\psi$ yields in $p$+$p$ and $p$+Au collisions is worse.
Inclusive J/psi cross section times branching ratio of the dimuon decay channel in p+p collisions at 200 GeV. Global uncertainty of 12.5% not shown.
Inclusive J/psi cross section times branching ratio of the dimuon decay channel in p+Au collisions at 200 GeV. Global uncertainty of 1.5% not shown.
R_pAu of inclusive J/psi in p+Au collisions at 200 GeV. Global uncertainty of 13.9% not shown.
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