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.
A precise measurement of the cross section of the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ from threshold to an energy of 3GeV is obtained with the initial-state radiation (ISR) method using 232fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the BaBar detector at $e^+e^-$ center-of-mass energies near 10.6GeV. The ISR luminosity is determined from a study of the leptonic process $e^+e^-\to\mu^+\mu^-(\gamma)\gamma_{\rm ISR}$, which is found to agree with the next-to-leading-order QED prediction to within 1.1%. The cross section for the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-(\gamma)$ is obtained with a systematic uncertainty of 0.5% in the dominant $\rho$ resonance region. The leading-order hadronic contribution to the muon magnetic anomaly calculated using the measured $\pi\pi$ cross section from threshold to 1.8GeV is $(514.1 \pm 2.2({\rm stat}) \pm 3.1({\rm syst}))\times 10^{-10}$.
The Standard Model of particle physics currently provides our best description of fundamental particles and their interactions. The theory predicts that the different charged leptons, the electron, muon and tau, have identical electroweak interaction strengths. Previous measurements have shown a wide range of particle decays are consistent with this principle of lepton universality. This article presents evidence for the breaking of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays, with a significance of 3.1 standard deviations, based on proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are of processes in which a beauty meson transforms into a strange meson with the emission of either an electron and a positron, or a muon and an antimuon. If confirmed by future measurements, this violation of lepton universality would imply physics beyond the Standard Model, such as a new fundamental interaction between quarks and leptons.
We present the measurement of the first to fourth order moments of the four-momentum transfer squared, $q^2$, of inclusive $B \rightarrow X_c \ell^+ \nu_{\ell}$ decays using the full Belle data set of 711 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance where $\ell = e, \mu$. The determination of these moments and their systematic uncertainties open new pathways to determine the absolute value of the CKM matrix element $V_{cb}$ using a reduced set of matrix elements of the heavy quark expansion. In order to identify and reconstruct the $X_c$ system, we reconstruct one of the two $B$-mesons using machine learning techniques in fully hadronic decay modes. The moments are measured with progressively increasing threshold selections on $q^2$ starting with a lower value of 3.0 $\mathrm{GeV}^2$ in steps of 0.5 $\mathrm{GeV}^2$ up to a value of 10.0 $\mathrm{GeV}^2$. The measured moments are further unfolded, correcting for reconstruction and selection effects as well as QED final state radiation. We report the moments separately for electron and muon final states and observe no lepton flavor universality violating effects.
The first measurements of differential branching fractions of inclusive semileptonic ${B \to X_u \, \ell^+\, \nu_{\ell}}$ decays are performed using the full Belle data set of 711 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance and for $\ell = e, \mu$. Differential branching fractions are reported as a function of the lepton momentum, the four-momentum-transfer squared, light-cone momenta, the hadronic mass, and the hadronic mass squared. They are obtained by subtracting the backgrounds from semileptonic ${B \to X_c \, \ell^+\, \nu_{\ell}}$ decays and other processes, and corrected for resolution and acceptance effects. The measured distributions are compared to predictions from inclusive and hybrid ${B \to X_u \, \ell^+\, \nu_{\ell}}$ calculations.
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.
A search is presented for vector-like T and B quark-antiquark pairs produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Data were collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016-2018, with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events are separated into single-lepton, same-sign charge dilepton, and multilepton channels. In the analysis of the single-lepton channel a multilayer neural network and jet identification techniques are employed to select signal events, while the same-sign dilepton and multilepton channels rely on the high-energy signature of the signal to distinguish it from standard model backgrounds. The data are consistent with standard model background predictions, and the production of vector-like quark pairs is excluded at 95% confidence level for T quark masses up to 1.54 TeV and B quark masses up to 1.56 TeV, depending on the branching fractions assumed, with maximal sensitivity to decay modes that include multiple top quarks. The limits obtained in this search are the strongest limits to date for $\mathrm{T\overline{T}}$ production, excluding masses below 1.48 TeV for all decays to third generation quarks, and are the strongest limits to date for $\mathrm{B\overline{B}}$ production with B quark decays to tW.
The path-length dependent parton energy loss within the dense partonic medium created in lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV is studied by determining the azimuthal anisotropies for dijets with high transverse momentum. The data were collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.69 nb$^{-1}$. For events containing back-to-back jets, correlations in relative azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity ($\eta$) between jets and hadrons, and between two hadrons, are constructed. The anisotropies are expressed as the Fourier expansion coefficients $v_n$, $n = $ 2-4 of these azimuthal distributions. The dijet $v_n$ values are extracted from long-range (1.5 $\lt$$\vert\Delta\eta\vert$$\lt$ 2.5) components of these correlations, which suppresses the background contributions from jet fragmentation processes. Positive dijet $v_2$ values are observed which increase from central to more peripheral events, while the $v_3$ and $v_4$ values are consistent with zero within experimental uncertainties.
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.
A search for physics beyond the standard model (SM) in final states with an electron or muon and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016–2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. Model-independent limits are set on the production cross section of W’ bosons decaying into lepton-plus-neutrino final states. Within the framework of the sequential standard model, with the combined results from the electron and muon decay channels a W’ boson with mass less than 5.7 TeV is excluded at 95% confidence level. Results on a SM precision test, the determination of the oblique electroweak W parameter, are presented using LHC data for the first time. These results together with those from the direct W’ resonance search are used to extend existing constraints on composite Higgs scenarios. This is the first experimental exclusion on compositeness parameters using results from LHC data other than Higgs boson measurements.
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