This Letter presents a differential cross-section measurement of Lund subjet multiplicities, suitable for testing current and future parton shower Monte Carlo algorithms. This measurement is made in dijet events in 140 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The data are unfolded to account for acceptance and detector-related effects, and are then compared with several Monte Carlo models and to recent resummed analytical calculations. The experimental precision achieved in the measurement allows tests of higher-order effects in QCD predictions. Most predictions fail to accurately describe the measured data, particularly at large values of jet transverse momentum accessible at the Large Hadron Collider, indicating the measurement's utility as an input to future parton shower developments and other studies probing fundamental properties of QCD and the production of hadronic final states up to the TeV-scale.
This paper presents a first measurement of the cross-section for the charged-current Drell-Yan process $pp\rightarrow W^{\pm} \rightarrow \ell^{\pm} \nu$ above the resonance region, where $\ell$ is an electron or muon. The measurement is performed for transverse masses, $m_{\text{T}}^{\text{W}}$, between 200 GeV and 5000 GeV, using a sample of 140~fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2015-2018. The data are presented single differentially in transverse mass and double differentially in transverse mass and absolute lepton pseudorapidity. A test of lepton flavour universality shows no significant deviations from the Standard Model. The electron and muon channel measurements are combined to achieve a total experimental precision of 3% at low $m_{\text{T}}^{\text{W}}$. The single- and double differential $W$-boson charge asymmetries are evaluated from the measurements. A comparison to next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions using several recent parton distribution functions and including next-to-leading-order electroweak effects indicates the potential of the data to constrain parton distribution functions. The data are also used to constrain four fermion operators in the Standard Model Effective Field Theory formalism, in particular the lepton-quark operator Wilson coefficient $c_{\ell q}^{(3)}.$
Parton energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is studied with a measurement of photon-tagged jet production in 1.7 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data and 260 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ data, both at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, with the ATLAS detector. The process $pp \to \gamma$+jet+$X$ and its analogue in Pb+Pb collisions is measured in events containing an isolated photon with transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) above $50$ GeV and reported as a function of jet $p_\mathrm{T}$. This selection results in a sample of jets with a steeply falling $p_\mathrm{T}$ distribution that are mostly initiated by the showering of quarks. The $pp$ and Pb+Pb measurements are used to report the nuclear modification factor, $R_\mathrm{AA}$, and the fractional energy loss, $S_\mathrm{loss}$, for photon-tagged jets. In addition, the results are compared with the analogous ones for inclusive jets, which have a significantly smaller quark-initiated fraction. The $R_\mathrm{AA}$ and $S_\mathrm{loss}$ values are found to be significantly different between those for photon-tagged jets and inclusive jets, demonstrating that energy loss in the QGP is sensitive to the colour-charge of the initiating parton. The results are also compared with a variety of theoretical models of colour-charge-dependent energy loss.
This paper presents a search for massive, charged, long-lived particles with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using an integrated luminosity of 140 $fb^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. These particles are expected to move significantly slower than the speed of light. In this paper, two signal regions provide complementary sensitivity. In one region, events are selected with at least one charged-particle track with high transverse momentum, large specific ionisation measured in the pixel detector, and time of flight to the hadronic calorimeter inconsistent with the speed of light. In the other region, events are selected with at least two tracks of opposite charge which both have a high transverse momentum and an anomalously large specific ionisation. The search is sensitive to particles with lifetimes greater than about 3 ns with masses ranging from 200 GeV to 3 TeV. The results are interpreted to set constraints on the supersymmetric pair production of long-lived R-hadrons, charginos and staus, with mass limits extending beyond those from previous searches in broad ranges of lifetime.
A search for cascade decays of charged sleptons and sneutrinos using final states characterized by three leptons (electrons or muons) and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on a dataset with 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. This paper focuses on a supersymmetric scenario that is motivated by the muon anomalous magnetic moment observation, dark mattter relic density abundance, and electroweak naturalness. A mass spectrum involving light higgsinos and heavier sleptons with a bino at intermediate mass is targeted. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. This search enables to place stringent constraints on this model, excluding at the 95% confidence level charged slepton and sneutrino masses up to 450 GeV when assuming a lightest neutralino mass of 100 GeV and mass-degenerate selectrons, smuons and sneutrinos.
This letter reports the observation of $W(\ell\nu)\gamma\gamma$ production in proton-proton collisions. This measurement uses the full Run 2 sample of events recorded at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. Events with a leptonically-decaying $W$ boson and at least two photons are considered. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with an observed and expected significance of $5.6$ standard deviations. The inclusive fiducial production cross section of $W(e\nu)\gamma\gamma$ and $W(\mu\nu)\gamma\gamma$ events is measured to be $\sigma_{\mathrm{fid}} = 13.8 \pm 1.1 (\mathrm{stat}) \substack{+2.1 \\ -2.0} (\mathrm{syst}) \pm 0.1 (\mathrm{lumi})$ fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction.
This letter presents a search for narrow, high-mass resonances in the $Z\gamma$ final state with the $Z$ boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons. The $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collision data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and have an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The data are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model background expectation. Upper limits are set on the resonance production cross section times the decay branching ratio into $Z\gamma$. For spin-0 resonances produced via gluon-gluon fusion, the observed limits at 95% confidence level vary between 65.5 fb and 0.6 fb, while for spin-2 resonances produced via gluon-gluon fusion (or quark-antiquark initial states) limits vary between 77.4 (76.1) fb and 0.6 (0.5) fb, for the mass range from 220 GeV to 3400 GeV.
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.
This paper reports cross-section measurements of $ZZ$ production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were collected by the ATLAS detector in 2022, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 29 fb$^-1$. Events in the $ZZ\rightarrow4\ell$ ($\ell = e$, $\mu$) final states are selected and used to measure the inclusive and differential cross-sections in a fiducial region defined close to the analysis selections. The inclusive cross-section is further extrapolated to the total phase space with a requirement of 66 $< m_Z <$ 116 GeV for both $Z$ bosons, yielding $16.8 \pm 1.1$ pb. The results are well described by the Standard Model predictions.
Inclusive cross-sections for top-quark pair production in association with charm quarks are measured with proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC between 2015 and 2018. The measurements are performed by requiring one or two charged leptons (electrons and muons), two $b$-tagged jets, and at least one additional jet in the final state. A custom flavor-tagging algorithm is employed for the simultaneous identification of $b$-jets and $c$-jets. In a fiducial phase space that replicates the acceptance of the ATLAS detector, the cross-sections for $t\bar{t}+ {\geq} 2c$ and $t\bar{t}+1c$ production are measured to be $1.28^{+0.27}_{-0.24}\;\text{pb}$ and $6.4^{+1.0}_{-0.9}\;\text{pb}$, respectively. The measurements are primarily limited by uncertainties in the modeling of inclusive $t\bar{t}$ and $t\bar{t}+b\bar{b}$ production, in the calibration of the flavor-tagging algorithm, and by data statistics. Cross-section predictions from various $t\bar{t}$ simulations are largely consistent with the measured cross-section values, though all underpredict the observed values by 0.5 to 2.0 standard deviations. In a phase-space volume without requirements on the $t\bar{t}$ decay products and the jet multiplicity, the cross-section ratios of $t\bar{t}+ {\geq} 2c$ and $t\bar{t}+1c$ to total $t\bar{t}+\text{jets}$ production are determined to be $(1.23 \pm 0.25) \%$ and $(8.8 \pm 1.3) \%$.