Several models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict the existence of dark photons, light neutral particles decaying into collimated leptons or light hadrons. This paper presents a search for long-lived dark photons produced from the decay of a Higgs boson or a heavy scalar boson and decaying into displaced collimated Standard Model fermions. The search uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV recorded in 2015-2016 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed number of events is consistent with the expected background, and limits on the production cross section times branching fraction as a function of the proper decay length of the dark photon are reported. A cross section times branching fraction above 4 pb is excluded for a Higgs boson decaying into two dark photons for dark-photon decay lengths between 1.5 mm and 307 mm.
Upper limits at 95% CL on the cross section times branching fraction for the process $H \to 2\gamma_d + X$ with $m_H$ = 125 GeV in the muon-muon final state.
Upper limits at 95% CL on the cross section times branching fraction for the process $H \to 4\gamma_d + X$ with $m_H$ = 125 GeV in the muon-muon final state.
Upper limits at 95% CL on the cross section times branching fraction for the process $H \to 2\gamma_d + X$ with $m_H$ = 800 GeV in the muon-muon final state.
A search for heavy resonances decaying into a $W$ or $Z$ boson and a Higgs boson produced in proton$-$proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV is presented. The analysis utilizes the dominant $W \to q \bar{q}^\prime$ or $Z \to q \bar{q}$ and $H \to b \bar{b}$ decays with substructure techniques applied to large-radius jets. A sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the ATLAS detector is analyzed and no significant excess of data is observed over the background prediction. The results are interpreted in the context of the Heavy Vector Triplet model with spin-1 $W^\prime$ and $Z^\prime$ bosons. Upper limits on the cross section are set for resonances with mass between 1.5 and 5.0 TeV, ranging from 6.8 to 0.53 fb for $W^\prime \to WH$ and from 8.7 to 0.53 fb for $Z^\prime \to ZH$ at the 95 % confidence level.
Observed and expected 95% CL upper limits on the cross section in the WH channel.
Observed and expected 95% CL upper limits on the cross section in the WH channel.
Observed and expected 95% CL upper limits on the cross section in the ZH channel.
A search for the production of three massive vector bosons in proton--proton collisions is performed using data at $\sqrt{s}=13\,TeV$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in the years 2015--2017, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $79.8\,\text{fb}^{-1}$. Events with two same-sign leptons $\ell$ (electrons or muons) and at least two reconstructed jets are selected to search for $WWW\to\ell\nu\ell\nu qq$. Events with three leptons without any same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pairs are used to search for $WWW\to\ell\nu\ell\nu\ell\nu$, while events with three leptons and at least one same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pair and one or more reconstructed jets are used to search for $WWZ\to\ell\nu qq \ell\ell$. Finally, events with four leptons are analysed to search for $WWZ\to\ell\nu\ell\nu\ell\ell$ and $WZZ\to qq \ell\ell\ell\ell$. Evidence for the joint production of three massive vector bosons is observed with a significance of 4.0 standard deviations, where the expectation is 3.1 standard deviations.
Measurement of the $WWW$ cross section.
Measurement of the $WWZ$ cross section.
A search is presented for four-top-quark production using an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected if they contain a same-sign lepton pair or at least three leptons (electrons or muons). Jet multiplicity, jet flavour and event kinematics are used to separate signal from the background through a multivariate discriminant, and dedicated control regions are used to constrain the dominant backgrounds. The four-top-quark production cross section is measured to be 24$^{+7}_{-6}$ fb. This corresponds to an observed (expected) significance with respect to the background-only hypothesis of 4.3 (2.4) standard deviations and provides evidence for this process.
The results of fitted inclusive ${t\bar{t}t\bar{t}}$ cross-section
The results of the fitted signal strength $\mu$
List of the uncertainties in the signal strength $\mu$, grouped in categories. The quoted values are obtained by repeating the fit, fixing a set of nuisance parameters of the sources corresponding to the considered category, and subtracting in quadrature the resulting uncertainty from the total uncertainty of the nominal fit presented in the last line. The total uncertainty is different from the sum in quadrature of the components due to correlations between nuisance parameters.
The inclusive cross-section for jet production in association with a Z boson decaying into an electron-positron pair is measured as a function of the transverse momentum and the absolute rapidity of jets using 19.9 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt s = 8$ TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured Z + jets cross-section is unfolded to the particle level. The cross-section is compared with state-of-the-art Standard Model calculations, including the next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations, corrected for non-perturbative and QED radiation effects. The results of the measurements cover final-state jets with transverse momenta up to 1 TeV, and show good agreement with fixed-order calculations.
List of experimentally considered systematic uncertainties for the Z + jets cross-section measurement
The double-differential Z + jets production cross-section as a function of |y_{jet}| in the 25 GeV < p_{T}^{jet} < 50 GeV range. The particle level phase space definition: - 66 GeV < m_{ee} < 116 GeV - |eta_{electron}| < 2.47 - p_{T}^{electron} > 20 GeV - anti-kt R=0.4 jets N>=1 - |y_{jet}| < 3.4 - p_{T}^{jet} > 25 GeV - Delta R(jet, electron) > 0.4
The double-differential Z + jets production cross-section as a function of |y_{jet}| in the 50 GeV < p_{T}^{jet} < 100 GeV range. The particle level phase space definition: - 66 GeV < m_{ee} < 116 GeV - |eta_{electron}| < 2.47 - p_{T}^{electron} > 20 GeV - anti-kt R=0.4 jets N>=1 - |y_{jet}| < 3.4 - p_{T}^{jet} > 25 GeV - Delta R(jet, electron) > 0.4
The $t\bar{t}$ production cross-section is measured in the lepton+jets channel using proton$-$proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Events with exactly one charged lepton and four or more jets in the final state, with at least one jet containing $b$-hadrons, are used to determine the $t\bar{t}$ production cross-section through a profile-likelihood fit. The inclusive cross-section is measured to be ${\sigma_{\text{inc}} = 830 \pm 0.4~ \text{(stat.)}\pm 36~\text{(syst.)}\pm 14~\text{(lumi.)}~\mathrm{pb}}$ with a relative uncertainty of 4.6 %. The result is consistent with theoretical calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. The fiducial $t\bar{t}$ cross-section within the experimental acceptance is also measured.
The results of fitted inclusive and fiducial ${t\bar{t}}$ cross-sections
The results of fitted inclusive and fiducial ${t\bar{t}}$ cross-sections
Ranking of the systematic uncertainties on the measured cross-section, normalised to the predicted value, in the inclusive fit to data. The impact of each nuisance parameter, $\Delta \sigma_{\text{inc}}/\sigma^{\text{pred.}}_{\text{inc}}$, is computed by comparing the nominal best-fit value of $\sigma_{\text{inc}}/\sigma^{\text{pred}}_{\text{inc}}$ with the result of the fit when fixing the considered nuisance parameter to its best-fit value, $\theta$, shifted by its pre-fit (post-fit) uncertainties $\pm \Delta \theta$ ($\pm \Delta \hat{\theta}$). The figure shows the effect of the ten most significant uncertainties.
The production of a prompt photon in association with a $Z$ boson is studied in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC from 2015 to 2018. The production cross-section for the process $pp \rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-\gamma+X$ ($\ell = e, \mu$) is measured within a fiducial phase-space region defined by kinematic requirements on the photon and the leptons, and by isolation requirements on the photon. An experimental precision of 2.9% is achieved for the fiducial cross-section. Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of each of six kinematic variables characterising the $\ell^+\ell^-\gamma$ system. The data are compared with theoretical predictions based on next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations. The impact of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections is also considered.
The measured fiducial cross section. "Uncor" uncertainty includes all systematic uncertainties that are uncorrelated between electron and muon channels such as the uncertainty on the electron identification efficiency and the uncorrelated component of the background uncertainties. The parton-to-particle correction factor $C_{theory}$ is the ratio of the cross-section predicted by Sherpa LO samples at particle level within the fiducial phase-space region defined in Table 4 to the predicted cross-section at parton level within the same fiducial region but with the smooth-cone isolation prescription defined above replacing the particle-level photon isolation criterion, and with Born-level leptons in place of dressed leptons. This correction should be applied on fixed order parton-level calculations. The systematic uncertainty is evaluated from a comparison with the correction factor obtained using events generated with SHERPA 2.2.2 at NLO. In the case that the calculations are valid for dressed leptons, a modified correction factor excluding the Born-to-dressed lepton correction should be applied instead. This correction only takes into account the particle-level isolation criteria, and is provided separately here. The Sherpa 2.2.8 NLO cross-sections given below include a small contribution from EW $Z\gamma jj$ production of 4.57 fb.
The measured fiducial cross section. "Uncor" uncertainty includes all systematic uncertainties that are uncorrelated between electron and muon channels such as the uncertainty on the electron identification efficiency and the uncorrelated component of the background uncertainties. The parton-to-particle correction factor $C_{theory}$ is the ratio of the cross-section predicted by Sherpa LO samples at particle level within the fiducial phase-space region defined in Table 4 to the predicted cross-section at parton level within the same fiducial region but with the smooth-cone isolation prescription defined above replacing the particle-level photon isolation criterion, and with Born-level leptons in place of dressed leptons. This correction should be applied on fixed order parton-level calculations. The systematic uncertainty is evaluated from a comparison with the correction factor obtained using events generated with Sherpa 2.2.2 at NLO. In the case that the calculations are valid for dressed leptons, a modified correction factor excluding the Born-to-dressed lepton correction should be applied instead. This correction only takes into account the particle-level isolation criteria, and is provided separately here. The Sherpa 2.2.8 NLO cross-sections given below include a small contribution from EW $Z\gamma jj$ production of 4.57 fb.
The measured fiducial cross section vs $E_{\mathrm{T}}^\gamma$. The central values are provided along with the statistical and systematic uncertainties together with the sign information. The statistical and "Uncor" uncertainty should be treated as uncorrelated bin-to-bin, while the rest are correlated between bins, and they are written as signed NP variations. The parton-to-particle correction factor $C_{theory}$ is the ratio of the cross-section predicted by Sherpa LO samples at particle level within the fiducial phase-space region defined in Table 4 to the predicted cross-section at parton level within the same fiducial region but with the smooth-cone isolation prescription defined above replacing the particle-level photon isolation criterion, and with Born-level leptons in place of dressed leptons. This correction should be applied on fixed order parton-level calculations. The systematic uncertainty is evaluated from a comparison with the correction factor obtained using events generated with Sherpa 2.2.2 at NLO. The uncertainty is defined as Max(stat error, systematic difference between Sherpa LO and Sherpa 2.2.2 NLO), and cannot be considered correlated bin-to-bin. In the case that the calculations are valid for dressed leptons, a modified correction factor excluding the Born-to-dressed lepton correction should be applied instead. This correction only takes into account the particle-level isolation criteria, and is provided separately here. The Sherpa 2.2.8 NLO cross-sections given below include a small contribution from EW $Z\gamma jj$ production.
The inclusive top-quark-pair production cross section $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$ and its ratio to the $Z$-boson production cross section have been measured in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV, using 29 fb${}^{-1}$ of data collected in 2022 with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Using events with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair and $b$-tagged jets, and assuming Standard Model decays, the top-quark-pair production cross section is measured to be $\sigma_{t\bar{t}} = 850 \pm 3\mathrm{(stat.)}\pm 18\mathrm{(syst.)}\pm 20\mathrm{(lumi.)}$ pb. The ratio of the $t\bar{t}$ and the $Z$-boson production cross sections is also measured, where the $Z$-boson contribution is determined for inclusive $e^+e^-$ and $\mu^+\mu^-$ events in a fiducial phase space. The relative uncertainty on the ratio is reduced compared to the $t\bar{t}$ cross section, thanks to the cancellation of several systematic uncertainties. The result for the ratio, $R_{t\bar{t}/Z} = 1.145 \pm 0.003\mathrm{(stat.)}\pm 0.021\mathrm{(syst.)}\pm 0.002\mathrm{(lumi.)}$ is consistent with the Standard Model prediction using the PDF4LHC21 PDF set.
The fiducial phase-space definition for the $Z$-boson measurement. Born-level leptons are used.
The measured $t\bar{t}$ cross section and the ratio of the cross sections of $t\bar{t}$ and the $Z$-boson. Full phase-space is considered for $t\bar{t}$, while fiducial phase-space is considered for the $Z$-boson.
Table with pre-fit yields in the four regions used in the measurement
This Letter presents a search for the production of new heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a photon using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis is performed by reconstructing hadronically decaying Higgs boson $(H\to b\bar{b})$ candidates as single large-radius jets. A novel algorithm using information about the jet constituents in the center-of-mass frame of the jet is implemented to identify the two $b$-quarks in the single jet. No significant excess of events is observed above the expected background. Upper limits are set on the production cross-section times branching fraction for narrow spin-1 resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a photon in the resonance mass range from 0.7 to 4 TeV, cross-sections times branching fraction are excluded between 11.6 fb and 0.11 fb at a 95% confidence level.
Data distribution of the reconstructed $m_{J\gamma}$ and background only fitting in the single-b-tagged category. Background and signal fit functions are provided in Table 3. Background event yields are calculated using the fitted background function.
Data distribution of the reconstructed $m_{J\gamma}$ and background only fitting in the double-b-tagged category. Background and signal fit functions are provided in Table 3. Background event yields are calculated using the fitted background function.
Background and signal functions, with their fit parameters. For the background function, the parameters are fitted from the data distribution. The "Yield" is the total number of events in data in the single-b-tagged or double-b-tagged fitting range. For the single-b-tagged category, the fitting range is [1400GeV, 4200GeV], and for the double-b-tagged category, it is [600GeV, 4200GeV]. The background event yields per bin in Table 1 and Table 2 are calculated using the data yield multiplied by the integral of the normalized background function in that bin. For the signal function, the value for the parameters are from parametrisation studies and CB stands for a Crystal-Ball function. Signal distributions in Figure 1a and Figure 1b are normalized to an arbitrary yield, for illustration purpose.
The production of N ∗ (1400) isobar in the reaction pp → pN ∗+ (1400), where N ∗ (1400) → n π + and p π 0 , is investigated with the aid of one-pion exchange model. The one-pion exchange mechanism does not seem to dominate the production process. The isospin of N ∗ (1400) is found to be I = 1 2 , and the elasticity of the resonance is estimated to be 0.66.
Axis error includes +- 0.0/0.0 contribution (?////Due to fitting mass spectrum).
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