A search for events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least two tau leptons has been performed using 2 fb^-1 of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and a 95% CL visible cross section upper limit for new phenomena is set. A 95% CL lower limit of 32 TeV is set on the GMSB breaking scale Lambda independent of tan(beta). These limits provide the most stringent tests to date in a large part of the considered parameter space.
This letter reports the results of a search for top and bottom squarks from gluino pair production in 4.7 fb^-1 of pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search is performed in events with large missing transverse momentum and at least three jets identified as originating from a b-quark. Exclusion limits are presented for a variety of gluino-mediated models with gluino masses up to 1 TeV excluded.
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |$\eta$| < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," $R_{cp}$. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. $R_{cp}$ varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.
This paper presents a search for the t-channel exchange of an R-parity violating scalar top quark (\={t}) in the emu continuum using 2.1/fb of data collected by the ATLAS detector in sqrt(s) = 7 TeV pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Data are found to be consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model backgrounds. Limits on R-parity-violating couplings at 95% C.L. are calculated as a function of the scalar top mass (m_{\={t}}). The upper limits on the production cross section for pp->emuX, through the t-channel exchange of a scalar top quark, ranges from 170 fb for m_{\={t}}=95 GeV to 30 fb for m_{\={t}}=1000 GeV.
A measurement of the total $pp$ cross section at the LHC at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV is presented. An integrated luminosity of $500$ $\mu$b$^{-1}$ was accumulated in a special run with high-$\beta^{\star}$ beam optics to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable $t$. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the $-t$ range from $0.014$ GeV$^2$ to $0.1$ GeV$^2$ to extrapolate $t\rightarrow 0$, the total cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X)$, is measured via the optical theorem to be: $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = {96.07} \; \pm 0.18 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.85 \; ({{exp.}}) \pm 0.31 \; ({extr.}) \; {mb} \;,$ where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation $t\rightarrow 0$. In addition, the slope of the exponential function describing the elastic cross section at small $t$ is determined to be $B = 19.74 \pm 0.05 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.23 \; ({{syst.}}) \; {GeV}^{-2}$.
Ratios of top-quark pair to $Z$-boson cross sections measured from proton--proton collisions at the LHC centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt s=13$TeV, 8TeV, and 7TeV are presented by the ATLAS Collaboration. Single ratios, at a given $\sqrt s$ for the two processes and at different $\sqrt s$ for each process, as well as double ratios of the two processes at different $\sqrt s$, are evaluated. The ratios are constructed using previously published ATLAS measurements of the $t\overline{t}$ and $Z$-boson production cross sections, corrected to a common phase space where required, and a new analysis of $Z \rightarrow \ell^+ \ell^-$ where $\ell=e,\mu$ at $\sqrt s=13$TeV performed with data collected in 2015 with an integrated luminosity of $3.2$fb$^{-1}$. Correlations of systematic uncertainties are taken into account when evaluating the uncertainties in the ratios. The correlation model is also used to evaluate the combined cross section of the $Z\rightarrow e^+e^-$ and the $Z\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^-$ channels for each $\sqrt s$ value. The results are compared to calculations performed at next-to-next-to-leading-order accuracy using recent sets of parton distribution functions. The data demonstrate significant power to constrain the gluon distribution function for the Bjorken-$x$ values near 0.1 and the light-quark sea for $x<0.02$.
A search for physics beyond the Standard Model, in final states with at least one high transverse momentum charged lepton (electron or muon) and two additional high transverse momentum leptons or jets, is performed using 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The upper end of the distribution of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of leptons and jets is sensitive to the production of high-mass objects. No excess of events beyond Standard Model predictions is observed. Exclusion limits are set for models of microscopic black holes with two to six extra dimensions.
The results of a search for vector-like top quarks using events with exactly one lepton, at least four jets, and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search is optimised for pair production of vector-like top quarks in the $Z(\rightarrow \! \! \nu \nu) \, t + X$ decay channel. LHC pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is seen and upper limits on the production cross-section of a vector-like $T$ quark pair as a function of the $T$ quark mass are derived. The observed (expected) 95% CL lower limits on the $T$ mass are 870 GeV (890 GeV) for the weak-isospin singlet model, 1.05 TeV (1.06 TeV) for the weak-isospin doublet model and 1.16 TeV (1.17 TeV) for the pure $Zt$ decay mode. Limits are also set on the mass as a function of the decay branching ratios, excluding large parts of the parameter space for masses below 1 TeV.
A search for the dimuon decay of the Higgs boson was performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the ATLAS detector in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess is observed above the expected background. The observed (expected) upper limit on the cross section times branching ratio is 3.0 (3.1) times the Standard Model prediction at the 95% confidence level for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. When combined with the $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV, the observed (expected) upper limit is 2.8 (2.9) times the Standard Model prediction.
The production of a $Z$ boson and a photon in association with a high-mass dijet system is studied using 20.2fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider. Final states with a photon and a Z boson decaying into a pair of either electrons, muons, or neutrinos are analysed. Electroweak and total $pp \to Z\gamma j j$ cross-sections are extracted in two fiducial regions with different sensitivities to electroweak production processes. Quartic couplings of vector bosons are studied in regions of phase space with an enhanced contribution from pure electroweak production, sensitive to vector-boson scattering processes $VV \to Z\gamma$. No deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed and constraints are placed on anomalous couplings parameterized by higher-dimensional operators using effective field theory.
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