Differential cross-sections are measured for the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets. These measurements are sensitive to final states in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction as well as to the purely-electroweak vector boson scattering process. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are compared to state-of-the-art Monte Carlo event generator predictions. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions that are induced by dimension-six and dimension-eight operators in Standard Model effective field theory.
Measurements of the polarization and spin correlation in top quark pairs ($\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$) are presented using events with a single electron or muon and jets in the final state. The measurements are based on proton-proton collision data from the LHC at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. All coefficients of the polarization vectors and the spin correlation matrix are extracted simultaneously by performing a binned likelihood fit to the data. The measurement is performed inclusively and in bins of additional observables, such as the mass of the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ system and the top quark scattering angle in the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ rest frame. The measured polarization and spin correlation are in agreement with the standard model. From the measured spin correlation, conclusions on the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ spin entanglement are drawn by applying the Peres-Horodecki criterion. The standard model predicts entangled spins for $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ states at the production threshold and at high masses of the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ system. Entanglement is observed for the first time in events at high $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ mass, where a large fraction of the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ decays are space-like separated, with an expected and observed significance of above 5 standard deviations.
This paper presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new pseudoscalar particles, $H\rightarrow aa$, where one pseudoscalar decays into a $b$-quark pair and the other decays into a $\tau$-lepton pair, in the mass range $12\leq m_{a}\leq 60$ GeV. The analysis uses $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 ${fb}^{-1}$. No significant excess above the Standard Model (SM) prediction is observed. Assuming the SM Higgs boson production cross-section, the search sets upper limits at 95% confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decaying into $b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$, $\mathcal{B}(H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-)$, between 2.2% and 3.9% depending on the pseudoscalar mass.
This article presents a search for a heavy charged Higgs boson produced in association with a top quark and a bottom quark, and decaying into a $W$ boson and a $125$ GeV Higgs boson $h$. The search is performed in final states with one charged lepton, missing transverse momentum, and jets using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the LHC at CERN. This data set corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The search is conducted by examining the reconstructed invariant mass distribution of the $Wh$ candidates for evidence of a localised excess in the charged Higgs boson mass range from $250$ GeV to $3$ TeV. No significant excess is observed and 95% confidence-level upper limits between $2.8$ pb and $1.2$ fb are placed on the production cross-section times branching ratio for charged Higgs bosons decaying into $Wh$.
A search is presented for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production, targeting the $bbZZ$, 4$V$ ($V$ = $W$ or $Z$), $VV\tau\tau$, 4$\tau$, $\gamma\gamma VV$ and $\gamma\gamma\tau\tau$ decay channels. Events are categorised based on the multiplicity of light charged leptons (electrons or muons), hadronically decaying tau leptons, and photons. The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence of the signal is found and the observed (expected) upper limit on the cross-section for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is determined to be 17 (11) times the Standard Model predicted cross-section at 95% confidence level under the background-only hypothesis. The observed (expected) constraints on the $HHH$ coupling modifier, $\kappa_{\lambda}$, are determined to be $-6.2 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 11.6$ ($-4.5 < \kappa_{\lambda} < 9.6$) at 95% confidence level, assuming the Standard Model for the expected limits and that new physics would only affect $\kappa_{\lambda}$.
Number of ggF and VBF SM HH signal events satisfying the preselection requirements from the targeted HH decay modes and their acceptance into the different ML search channels.
A measurement of the Z$γ$ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV is presented. Data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.8 fb$^{-1}$, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2022 are used. Events with an oppositely charged pair of muons or electrons, with an invariant mass corresponding to a Z boson, together with an isolated photon are selected. The measured fiducial cross section for the combined electron and muon channels is 1.896 $\pm$ 0.033 (stat) $\pm$ 0.05 (syst) $\pm$ 0.006 (theo) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction of 1.922 $\pm$ 0.094 pb. Constraints on neutral triple gauge couplings generated by dimension-8 operators in a recently proposed effective field theory framework are determined for the first time.
The production of charged hadrons within jets recoiling against a $Z$ boson is measured in proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV recorded by the LHCb experiment. The charged-hadron structure of the jet is studied longitudinally and transverse to the jet axis for jets with transverse momentum $p_{\mathrm{T}}>20$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $2.5<\eta<4$. These are the first measurements of jet hadronization at these forward rapidities and also the first where the jet is produced in association with a $Z$ boson. In contrast to previous hadronization measurements at the Large Hadron Collider, which are dominated by gluon jets, these measurements probe predominantly light-quark jets which are found to be more longitudinally and transversely collimated with respect to the jet axis when compared to the previous gluon dominated measurements. Therefore, these results provide valuable information on differences between quarks and gluons regarding nonperturbative hadronization dynamics.
The measurement of $\Upsilon$(1S), $\Upsilon$(2S), and $\Upsilon$(3S) yields as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity density, $\textrm{d}N_{\textrm{ch}}/\textrm{d}\eta$, using the ALICE experiment at the LHC, is reported in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The $\Upsilon$ meson yields are measured at forward rapidity ($2.5 < y < 4$) in the dimuon decay channel, whereas the charged-particle multiplicity is defined at central rapidity ($|\eta| < 1$). Both quantities are divided by their average value in minimum bias events to compute the self-normalized quantities. The increase of the self-normalized $\Upsilon$(1S), $\Upsilon$(2S), and $\Upsilon$(3S) yields is found to be compatible with a linear scaling with the self-normalized $\textrm{d}N_{\textrm{ch}}/\textrm{d}\eta$, within the uncertainties. The self-normalized yield ratios of excited-to-ground $\Upsilon$ states are compatible with unity within uncertainties. Similarly, the measured double ratio of the self-normalized $\Upsilon$(1S) to the self-normalized J/$\psi$ yields, both measured at forward rapidity, is compatible with unity for self-normalized charged-particle multiplicities beyond one. The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions incorporating initial or final state effects.
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 is presented for a third-generation leptoquark (LQ) coupled exclusively to a $\tau$ lepton and a b quark. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with $\tau$ leptons and a varying number of jets originating from b quarks are considered, targeting the single and pair production of LQs, as well as nonresonant $t$-channel LQ exchange. An excess is observed in the data with respect to the background expectation in the combined analysis of all search regions. For a benchmark LQ mass of 2 TeV and an LQ-b-$\tau$ coupling strength of 2.5, the excess reaches a local significance of up to 2.8 standard deviations. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the LQ production cross section in the LQ mass range 0.5-2.3 TeV, and up to 3 TeV for $t$-channel LQ exchange. Leptoquarks are excluded below masses of 1.22-1.88 TeV for different LQ models and varying coupling strengths up to 2.5. The study of nonresonant $\tau\tau$ production through $t$-channel LQ exchange allows lower limits on the LQ mass of up to 2.3 TeV to be obtained.