The STAR Collaboration presents measurements of the semi-inclusive distribution of charged-particle jets recoiling from energetic direct-photon ($\gamma_{\rm dir}$) and neutral-pion ($\pi^{0}$) triggers in p+p and central Au+Au collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ GeV over a broad kinematic range, for jet resolution parameters $R$=0.2 and 0.5. Medium-induced jet yield suppression is observed to be larger for $R$=0.2 than for 0.5, reflecting the angular range of jet energy redistribution due to quenching. The predictions of model calculations incorporating jet quenching are not fully consistent with the observations. These results provide new insight into the physical origins of jet quenching.
The STAR Collaboration reports precise measurements of the longitudinal double-spin asymmetry, $A_{LL}$, for dijet production with at least one jet at intermediate pseudorapidity $0.8 < η_{\rm jet} < 1.8$ in polarized proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 200 GeV. This study explores partons scattered with a longitudinal momentum fraction ($x$) from 0.01 to 0.5, which are predominantly characterized by interactions between high-$x$ valence quarks and low-$x$ gluons. The results are in good agreement with previous measurements at 200 GeV with improved precision and are found to be consistent with the predictions of global analyses that find the gluon polarization to be positive. In contrast, the negative gluon polarization solution from the JAM Collaboration is found to be strongly disfavored.
We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant $\Delta$(1232) baryon production followed by $\Delta$ radiative decay, with a $\langle0.8\rangle$~GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE's first three years of operations (6.80$\times$10$^{20}$ protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state ($1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$, respectively). The background is constrained via an in-situ high-purity measurement of NC $\pi^0$ events, made possible via dedicated $2\gamma1p$ and $2\gamma0p$ selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the $1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$ selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of $20.5 \pm 3.65 \text{(sys.)} $ and $145.1 \pm 13.8 \text{(sys.)} $ events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC $\Delta$ radiative decay of less than $2.3$ times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (CL). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of $3.18$ times the nominal NC $\Delta$ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% CL, in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than $50$-fold improvement over the world's best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range
Making use of 36 pb^-1 of proton-proton collision data at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV, the ATLAS Collaboration has performed a search for diphoton events with large missing transverse energy. Observing no excess of events above the Standard Model prediction, a 95% Confidence Level (CL) upper limit is set on the cross section for new physics of sigma < 0.38 - 0.65 pb in the context of a generalised model of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GGM) with a bino-like lightest neutralino, and of sigma < 0.18 - 0.23 pb in the context of a specific model with one universal extra dimension (UED). A 95 % CL lower limit of 560 GeV, for bino masses above 50 GeV, is set on the GGM gluino mass, while a lower limit of 1/R > 961 GeV is set on the UED compactification radius R. These limits provide the most stringent tests of these models to date.
A search has been performed for photons originating in the decay of a neutral long-lived particle, exploiting the capabilities of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to make precise measurements of the flight direction of photons, as well as the calorimeter's excellent time resolution. The search has been made in the diphoton plus missing transverse energy final state, using the full data sample of 4.8/fb of 7 TeV proton-proton collisions collected in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. No excess is observed above the background expected from Standard Model processes. The results are used to set exclusion limits in the context of Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking models, with the lightest neutralino being the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and decaying with a lifetime in excess of 0.25 ns into a photon and a gravitino.
The centrality dependence of the mean charged-particle multiplicity as a function of pseudorapidity is measured in approximately 1 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of proton--lead collisions at a nucleon--nucleon centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{_{\rm{NN}}}} = 5.02$ TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Charged particles with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.7 are reconstructed using the ATLAS pixel detector. The $p$+Pb collision centrality is characterised by the total transverse energy measured in the Pb-going direction of the forward calorimeter. The charged-particle pseudorapidity distributions are found to vary strongly with centrality, with an increasing asymmetry between the proton-going and Pb-going directions as the collisions become more central. Three different estimations of the number of nucleons participating in the $p$+Pb collision have been carried out using the Glauber model as well as two Glauber--Gribov inspired extensions to the Glauber model. Charged-particle multiplicities per participant pair are found to vary differently for these three models, highlighting the importance of including colour fluctuations in nucleon--nucleon collisions in the modelling of the initial state of $p$+Pb collisions.
This letter reports a measurement of the muon charge asymmetry from W Boson produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The asymmetry is measured in the W Boson to muon decay mode as a function of the muon pseudorapidity using a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 31 pb-1. The results are compared to predictions based on next-to-leading order calculations with various parton distribution functions. This measurement provides information on the u and d quark momentum fractions in the proton.
Pseudorapidity gap distributions in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are studied using a minimum bias data sample with an integrated luminosity of 7.1 inverse microbarns. Cross sections are measured differentially in terms of Delta eta F, the larger of the pseudorapidity regions extending to the limits of the ATLAS sensitivity, at eta = +/- 4.9, in which no final state particles are produced above a transverse momentum threshold p_T Cut. The measurements span the region 0 < Delta eta F < 8 for 200 < p_T Cut < 800 MeV. At small Delta eta F, the data test the reliability of hadronisation models in describing rapidity and transverse momentum fluctuations in final state particle production. The measurements at larger gap sizes are dominated by contributions from the single diffractive dissociation process (pp -> Xp), enhanced by double dissociation (pp -> XY) where the invariant mass of the lighter of the two dissociation systems satisfies M_Y <~ 7 GeV. The resulting cross section is d sigma / d Delta eta F ~ 1 mb for Delta eta F >~ 3. The large rapidity gap data are used to constrain the value of the pomeron intercept appropriate to triple Regge models of soft diffraction. The cross section integrated over all gap sizes is compared with other LHC inelastic cross section measurements.
A search is presented for direct chargino production based on a disappearing-track signature using 20.3 fb-1 of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) models, the lightest chargino is nearly mass-degenerate with the lightest neutralino and its lifetime is long enough to be detected in the tracking detectors by identifying decays that result in tracks with no associated hits in the outer region of the tracking system. Some models with supersymmetry also predict charginos with a significant lifetime. This analysis attains sensitivity for charginos with a lifetime between 0.1 ns and 10 ns, and significantly surpasses the reach of the LEP experiments. No significant excess above the background expectation is observed for candidate tracks with large transverse momentum, and constraints on chargino properties are obtained. In the AMSB scenarios, a chargino mass below 270 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level.
An inclusive search for long-lived exotic particles decaying to a pair of muons is presented. The search uses data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in 2016 and 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 97.6 fb$^{-1}$. The experimental signature is a pair of oppositely charged muons originating from a common secondary vertex spatially separated from the pp interaction point by distances ranging from several hundred $\mu$m to several meters. The results are interpreted in the frameworks of the hidden Abelian Higgs model, in which the Higgs boson decays to a pair of long-lived dark photons Z$_\mathrm{D}$, and of a simplified model, in which long-lived particles are produced in decays of an exotic heavy neutral scalar boson. For the hidden Abelian Higgs model with $m_\mathrm{Z_D}$ greater than 20 GeV and less than half the mass of the Higgs boson, they provide the best limits to date on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to dark photons for $c\tau$(Z$_\mathrm{D}$) (varying with $m_\mathrm{Z_D}$) between 0.03 and ${\approx}$ 0.5 mm, and above ${\approx}$ 0.5 m. Our results also yield the best constraints on long-lived particles with masses larger than 10 GeV produced in decays of an exotic scalar boson heavier than the Higgs boson and decaying to a pair of muons.
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