Many extensions of the Standard Model, including those with dark matter particles, propose new mediator particles that decay into hadrons. This paper presents a search for such low mass narrow resonances decaying into hadrons using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The resonances are searched for in the invariant mass spectrum of large-radius jets with two-pronged substructure that are recoiling against an energetic photon from initial state radiation, which is used as a trigger to circumvent limitations on the maximum data recording rate. This technique enables the search for boosted hadronically decaying resonances in the mass range 20-100 GeV hitherto unprobed by the ATLAS Collaboration. The observed data are found to agree with Standard Model predictions and 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the coupling of a hypothetical new spin-1 $Z'$ resonance with Standard Model quarks as a function of the assumed $Z'$-boson mass in the range between 20 and 200 GeV.
A search is performed for localized excesses in the low-mass dijet invariant mass distribution, targeting a hypothetical new particle decaying into two jets and produced in association with either a high transverse momentum photon or a jet. The search uses the full Run 2 data sample from LHC proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV during 2015-2018. Two variants of the search are presented for each type of initial-state radiation: one that makes no jet flavor requirements and one that requires both of the jets to have been identified as containing $b$-hadrons. No excess is observed relative to the Standard Model prediction, and the data are used to set upper limits on the production cross-section for a benchmark $Z'$ model and, separately, for generic, beyond the Standard Model scenarios which might produce a Gaussian-shaped contribution to dijet invariant mass distributions. The results extend the current constraints on dijet resonances to the mass range between 200 and 650 GeV.
The production of dark matter in association with Higgs bosons is predicted in several extensions of the Standard Model. An exploration of such scenarios is presented, considering final states with missing transverse momentum and $b$-tagged jets consistent with a Higgs boson. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during Run 2, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis, when compared with previous searches, benefits from a larger dataset, but also has further improvements providing sensitivity to a wider spectrum of signal scenarios. These improvements include both an optimised event selection and advances in the object identification, such as the use of the likelihood-based significance of the missing transverse momentum and variable-radius track-jets. No significant deviation from Standard Model expectations is observed. Limits are set, at 95% confidence level, in two benchmark models with two Higgs doublets extended by either a heavy vector boson $Z'$ or a pseudoscalar singlet $a$ and which both provide a dark matter candidate $\chi$. In the case of the two-Higgs-doublet model with an additional vector boson $Z'$, the observed limits extend up to a $Z'$ mass of 3 TeV for a mass of 100 GeV for the dark matter candidate. The two-Higgs-doublet model with a dark matter particle mass of 10 GeV and an additional pseudoscalar $a$ is excluded for masses of the $a$ up to 520 GeV and 240 GeV for $\tan \beta = 1$ and $\tan \beta = 10$ respectively. Limits on the visible cross-sections are set and range from 0.05 fb to 3.26 fb, depending on the missing transverse momentum and $b$-quark jet multiplicity requirements.
A measurement of four-top-quark production using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ is presented. Events are selected if they contain a single lepton (electron or muon) or an opposite-sign lepton pair, in association with multiple jets. The events are categorised according to the number of jets and how likely these are to contain $b$-hadrons. A multivariate technique is then used to discriminate between signal and background events. The measured four-top-quark production cross section is found to be 26$^{+17}_{-15}$ fb, with a corresponding observed (expected) significance of 1.9 (1.0) standard deviations over the background-only hypothesis. The result is combined with the previous measurement performed by the ATLAS Collaboration in the multilepton final state. The combined four-top-quark production cross section is measured to be 24$^{+7}_{-6}$ fb, with a corresponding observed (expected) signal significance of 4.7 (2.6) standard deviations over the background-only predictions. It is consistent within 2.0 standard deviations with the Standard Model expectation of 12.0$\pm$2.4 fb.
A search for diphoton resonances in the mass range between 10 and 70 GeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented. The analysis is based on $pp$ collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded from 2015 to 2018. Previous searches for diphoton resonances at the LHC have explored masses down to 65 GeV, finding no evidence of new particles. This search exploits the particular kinematics of events with pairs of closely spaced photons reconstructed in the detector, allowing examination of invariant masses down to 10 GeV. The presented strategy covers a region previously unexplored at hadron colliders because of the experimental challenges of recording low-energy photons and estimating the backgrounds. No significant excess is observed and the reported limits provide the strongest bound on promptly decaying axion-like particles coupling to gluons and photons for masses between 10 and 70 GeV.
Measurements of the differential production cross-sections of prompt and non-prompt $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2$S$)$ mesons with transverse momenta between 8 and 360 GeV and rapidity in the range $|y|<2$ are reported. Furthermore, measurements of the non-prompt fractions of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2$S$)$, and the prompt and non-prompt $\psi(2$S$)$-to-$J/\psi$ production ratios, are presented. The analysis is performed using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the years 2015-2018.
We present a search for magnetic monopoles and high-electric-charge objects using LHC Run 2 $\sqrt{s} =$13 TeV proton$-$proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector. A total integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ was collected by a specialized trigger. No highly ionizing particle candidate was observed. Considering the Drell-Yan and photon-fusion pair production mechanisms as benchmark models, cross-section upper limits are presented for spin-0 and spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ magnetic monopoles of magnetic charge $1g_\textrm{D}$ and $2g_\textrm{D}$ and for high-electric-charge objects of electric charge $20 \leq |z| \leq 100$, for masses between 200 GeV and 4000 GeV. The search improves by approximately a factor of three the previous cross-section limits on the Drell-Yan production of magnetic monopoles and high-electric charge objects. Also, the first ATLAS limits on the photon-fusion pair production mechanism of magnetic monopoles and high-electric-charge objects have been obtained.
Measurements of transverse energy$-$energy correlations and their associated azimuthal asymmetries in multijet events are presented. The analysis is performed using a data sample corresponding to 139 $\mbox{fb\(^{-1}\)}$ of proton$-$proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are presented in bins of the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the two leading jets and unfolded to particle level. They are then compared to next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations for the first time, which feature a significant reduction in the theoretical uncertainties estimated using variations of the renormalisation and factorisation scales. The agreement between data and theory is good, thus providing a precision test of QCD at large momentum transfers $Q$. The strong coupling constant $\alpha_s$ is extracted differentially as a function of $Q$, showing a good agreement with the renormalisation group equation and with previous analyses. A simultaneous fit to all transverse energy$-$energy correlation distributions across different kinematic regions yields a value of $\alpha_\mathrm{s}(m_Z) = 0.1175 \pm 0.0006 \mbox{ (exp.)} ^{+0.0034}_{-0.0017} \mbox{ (theo.)}$, while the global fit to the asymmetry distributions yields $\alpha_{\mathrm{s}}(m_Z) = 0.1185 \pm 0.0009 \mbox{ (exp.)} ^{+0.0025}_{-0.0012} \mbox{ (theo.)}$.
In a special run of the LHC with $\beta^\star = 2.5~$km, proton-proton elastic-scattering events were recorded at $\sqrt{s} = 13~$TeV with an integrated luminosity of $340~\mu \textrm{b}^{-1}$ using the ALFA subdetector of ATLAS in 2016. The elastic cross section was measured differentially in the Mandelstam $t$ variable in the range from $-t = 2.5 \cdot 10^{-4}~$GeV$^{2}$ to $-t = 0.46~$GeV$^{2}$ using 6.9 million elastic-scattering candidates. This paper presents measurements of the total cross section $\sigma_{\textrm{tot}}$, parameters of the nuclear slope, and the $\rho$-parameter defined as the ratio of the real part to the imaginary part of the elastic-scattering amplitude in the limit $t \rightarrow 0$. These parameters are determined from a fit to the differential elastic cross section using the optical theorem and different parameterizations of the $t$-dependence. The results for $\sigma_{\textrm{tot}}$ and $\rho$ are \begin{equation*} \sigma_{\textrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = \mbox{104.7} \pm 1.1 \; \mbox{mb} , \; \; \; \rho = \mbox{0.098} \pm 0.011 . \end{equation*} The uncertainty in $\sigma_{\textrm{tot}}$ is dominated by the luminosity measurement, and in $\rho$ by imperfect knowledge of the detector alignment and by modelling of the nuclear amplitude.
A search for quantum black holes in electron+jet and muon+jet invariant mass spectra is performed with 140 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed invariant mass spectrum of lepton+jet pairs is consistent with Standard Model expectations. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the production cross-sections times branching fractions for quantum black holes decaying into a lepton and a quark in a search region with invariant mass above 2.0 TeV. The resulting quantum black hole lower mass threshold limit is 9.2 TeV in the Arkani-Hamed-Dimopoulos-Dvali model, and 6.8 TeV in the Randall-Sundrum model.
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