The first collider search for dark matter arising from a strongly coupled hidden sector is presented and uses a data sample corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The hidden sector is hypothesized to couple to the standard model (SM) via a heavy leptophobic Z' mediator produced as a resonance in proton-proton collisions. The mediator decay results in two "semivisible" jets, containing both visible matter and invisible dark matter. The final state therefore includes moderate missing energy aligned with one of the jets, a signature ignored by most dark matter searches. No structure in the dijet transverse mass spectra compatible with the signal is observed. Assuming the Z' has a universal coupling of 0.25 to the SM quarks, an inclusive search, relevant to any model that exhibits this kinematic behavior, excludes mediator masses of 1.5-4.0 TeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the other signal model parameters. To enhance the sensitivity of the search for this particular class of hidden sector models, a boosted decision tree (BDT) is trained using jet substructure variables to distinguish between semivisible jets and SM jets from background processes. When the BDT is employed to identify each jet in the dijet system as semivisible, the mediator mass exclusion increases to 5.1 TeV, for wider ranges of the other signal model parameters. These limits exclude a wide range of strongly coupled hidden sector models for the first time.

A search for long-lived particles decaying into muon pairs is performed using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb$^{-1}$. The data sets used in this search were collected with a dedicated dimuon trigger stream with low transverse momentum thresholds, recorded at high rate by retaining a reduced amount of information, in order to explore otherwise inaccessible phase space at low dimuon mass and nonzero displacement from the primary interaction vertex. No significant excess of events beyond the standard model expectation is found. Upper limits on branching fractions at 95% confidence level are set on a wide range of mass and lifetime hypotheses in beyond the standard model frameworks with the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of long-lived dark photons, or with a long-lived scalar resonance arising from a decay of a b hadron. The limits are the most stringent to date for substantial regions of the parameter space. These results can be also used to constrain models of displaced dimuons that are not explicitly considered in this paper.

A search for exotic decays of the 125 GeV Higgs boson into a pair of new spin-0 particles, $H \to aa$, where one decays into a photon pair and the other into a $\tau$-lepton pair, is presented. Hadronic decays of the $\tau$-leptons are considered and reconstructed using a dedicated tagger for collimated $\tau$-lepton pairs. The search uses 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is performed in the mass range of the $a$ boson between 10 GeV and 60 GeV. No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model background expectation. Model-independent upper limits at 95$\% $ confidence level are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to the $\gamma\gamma\tau\tau$ final state, $\mathcal{B}(H\to aa\to \gamma\gamma\tau\tau)$, ranging from 0.2$\% $ to 2$\% $, depending on the $a$-boson mass hypothesis.

A search for supersymmetry in events with two or three low-momentum leptons and missing transverse momentum is performed. The search uses proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV collected in the three-year period 2016-2018 by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 137 fb$^{-1}$. The data are found to be in agreement with expectations from standard model processes. The results are interpreted in terms of electroweakino and top squark pair production with a small mass difference between the produced supersymmetric particles and the lightest neutralino. For the electroweakino interpretation, two simplified models are used, a wino-bino model and a higgsino model. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are set on $\widetilde{\chi}^0_2 / \widetilde{\chi}^\pm_1$ masses up to 275 GeV for a mass difference of 10 GeV in the wino-bino case, and up to 205 (150) GeV for a mass difference of 7.5 (3) GeV in the higgsino case. The results for the higgsino are further interpreted using a phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model, excluding the higgsino mass parameter $\mu$ up to 180 GeV with the bino mass parameter $M_1$ at 800 GeV. In the top squark interpretation, exclusion limits are set at top squark masses up to 540 GeV for four-body top squark decays and up to 480 GeV for chargino-mediated decays with a mass difference of 30 GeV.

A combination of measurements of the inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section performed by ATLAS and CMS in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC is presented. The cross-sections are obtained using top-quark pair decays with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair in the final state and with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 5 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and about 20 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV for each experiment. The combined cross-sections are determined to be $178.5 \pm 4.7$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $243.3^{+6.0}_{-5.9}$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with a correlation of 0.41, using a reference top-quark mass value of 172.5 GeV. The ratio of the combined cross-sections is determined to be $R_{8/7}= 1.363\pm 0.032$. The combined measured cross-sections and their ratio agree well with theory calculations using several parton distribution function (PDF) sets. The values of the top-quark pole mass (with the strong coupling fixed at 0.118) and the strong coupling (with the top-quark pole mass fixed at 172.5 GeV) are extracted from the combined results by fitting a next-to-next-to-leading-order plus next-to-next-to-leading-log QCD prediction to the measurements. Using a version of the NNPDF3.1 PDF set containing no top-quark measurements, the results obtained are $m_t^\text{pole} = 173.4^{+1.8}_{-2.0}$ GeV and $\alpha_\text{s}(m_Z)= 0.1170^{+ 0.0021}_{-0.0018}$.

A measurement is presented of the electroweak vector boson scattering production of ZV (V = W, Z) boson pairs associated with two jets in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$, were collected at the CERN LHC with the CMS detector during the 2016$-$2018 data-taking period. The analysis targets final states with a pair of isolated electrons or muons from Z boson decays and three or four jets, depending on the momentum of the vector boson that decays into quarks. Signal strength is measured for events characterized by a large invariant mass of two forward jets with a wide pseudorapidity gap between them. The electroweak production of ZV in association with two jets is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 1.3 (1.8) standard deviations. A combination of the analyses of ZV channel and the previously published WV channel in the lepton plus jets final state places constraints on effective field theory parameters that describe anomalous electroweak production of WW, WZ, and ZZ boson pairs in association with two jets. Several world best limits are set on anomalous quartic gauge couplings in terms of dimension-8 standard model effective field theory operators.

A study of the polarisation and CP properties in $ZZ$ production is presented. The used data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The $ZZ$ candidate events are reconstructed using two same-flavour opposite-charge electron or muon pairs. The production of two longitudinally polarised $Z$ bosons is measured with a significance of 4.3 standard deviations, and its cross-section is measured in a fiducial phase space to be $2.45 \pm 0.60$ fb, consistent with the next-to-leading-order Standard Model prediction. The inclusive differential cross-section as a function of a CP-sensitive angular observable is also measured. The results are used to constrain anomalous CP-odd neutral triple gauge couplings.

A generic search for resonances is performed with events containing a $Z$ boson with transverse momentum greater than 100 GeV, decaying into $e^+e^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-$. The analysed data collected with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Two invariant mass distributions are examined for a localised excess relative to the expected Standard Model background in six independent event categories (and their inclusive sum) to increase the sensitivity. No significant excess is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are derived for two cases: a model-independent interpretation of Gaussian-shaped resonances with the mass width between 3% and 10% of the resonance mass, and a specific heavy vector triplet model with the decay mode $W'\to ZW \to \ell\ell qq$.

A combination of searches for the single production of vector-like top quarks ($T$) is presented. These analyses are based on proton$-$proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded in 2015$-$2018 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The $T$-quark decay modes considered in this combination are into a top quark and either a Standard Model Higgs boson or a $Z$ boson ($T \to Ht$ and $T \to Zt$). The individual searches used in the combination are differentiated by the number of leptons ($e$, $\mu$) in the final state. The observed data are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model background prediction. Interpretations are provided for a range of masses and couplings of the vector-like top quark for benchmark models and generalized representations in terms of 95% confidence level limits. For a benchmark signal prediction of a vector-like top quark SU2 singlet with electroweak coupling, $\kappa$, of 0.5, masses below 2.1 TeV are excluded, resulting in the most restrictive limits to date.

This paper presents the measurement of fiducial and differential cross sections for both the inclusive and electroweak production of a same-sign $W$-boson pair in association with two jets ($W^\pm W^\pm jj$) using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed by selecting two same-charge leptons, electron or muon, and at least two jets with large invariant mass and a large rapidity difference. The measured fiducial cross sections for electroweak and inclusive $W^\pm W^\pm jj$ production are $2.92 \pm 0.22\, \text{(stat.)} \pm 0.19\, \text{(syst.)}$ fb and $3.38 \pm 0.22\, \text{(stat.)} \pm 0.19\, \text{(syst.)}$ fb, respectively, in agreement with Standard Model predictions. The measurements are used to constrain anomalous quartic gauge couplings by extracting 95% confidence level intervals on dimension-8 operators. A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons $H^{\pm\pm}$ that are produced in vector-boson fusion processes and decay into a same-sign $W$ boson pair is performed. The largest deviation from the Standard Model occurs for an $H^{\pm\pm}$ mass near 450 GeV, with a global significance of 2.5 standard deviations.