High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the event-wise average transverse momentum ($P([p_{\mathrm{T}}])$). Distinguishing between contributions from fluctuations in the size of the nuclear overlap area (geometrical component) and other sources at fixed size (intrinsic component) presents a challenge. Here, these two components are distinguished by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of $P([p_{\mathrm{T}}])$ in $^{208}$Pb+$^{208}$Pb and $^{129}$Xe+$^{129}$Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{{\mathrm{NN}}}} = 5.02$ and 5.44 TeV, respectively, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. All observables show distinct changes in behavior in ultra-central collisions, where the geometrical variations are suppressed as the overlap area reaches its maximum. These results demonstrate a new technique to disentangle geometrical and intrinsic fluctuations, enabling constraints on initial condition and properties of the quark-gluon plasma, such as the speed of sound.

A measurement of the top-quark pole mass $m_{t}^\text{pole}$ is presented in $t\bar{t}$ events with an additional jet, $t\bar{t}+1\text{-jet}$, produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The data sample, recorded with the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the LHC, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140 $\text{fb}^{-1}$. Events with one electron and one muon of opposite electric charge in the final state are selected to measure the $t\bar{t}+1\text{-jet}$ differential cross-section as a function of the inverse of the invariant mass of the $t\bar{t}+1\text{-jet}$ system. Iterative Bayesian Unfolding is used to correct the data to enable comparison with fixed-order calculations at next-to-leading-order accuracy in the strong coupling. The process $pp \to t\bar{t}j$ ($2 \rightarrow 3$), where top quarks are taken as stable particles, and the process $pp \to b\bar{b}l^+νl^- \barν j$ ($2 \to 7$), which includes top-quark decays to the dilepton final state and off-shell effects, are considered. The top-quark mass is extracted using a $χ^2$ fit of the unfolded normalized differential cross-section distribution. The results obtained with the $2 \to 3$ and $2 \to 7$ calculations are compatible within theoretical uncertainties, providing an important consistency check. The more precise determination is obtained for the $2 \to 3 $ measurement: $m_{t}^\text{pole}=170.7\pm0.3(\text{stat.})\pm1.4(\text{syst.})\pm 0.3(\text{scale})\pm 0.2(\text{PDF}\oplusα_\text{S})$ GeV, which is in good agreement with other top-quark mass results.

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.

A study of the polarisation and CP properties in $ZZ$ production is presented. The used data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The $ZZ$ candidate events are reconstructed using two same-flavour opposite-charge electron or muon pairs. The production of two longitudinally polarised $Z$ bosons is measured with a significance of 4.3 standard deviations, and its cross-section is measured in a fiducial phase space to be $2.45 \pm 0.60$ fb, consistent with the next-to-leading-order Standard Model prediction. The inclusive differential cross-section as a function of a CP-sensitive angular observable is also measured. The results are used to constrain anomalous CP-odd neutral triple gauge couplings.

This paper presents the measurement of fiducial and differential cross sections for both the inclusive and electroweak production of a same-sign $W$-boson pair in association with two jets ($W^\pm W^\pm jj$) using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis is performed by selecting two same-charge leptons, electron or muon, and at least two jets with large invariant mass and a large rapidity difference. The measured fiducial cross sections for electroweak and inclusive $W^\pm W^\pm jj$ production are $2.92 \pm 0.22\, \text{(stat.)} \pm 0.19\, \text{(syst.)}$ fb and $3.38 \pm 0.22\, \text{(stat.)} \pm 0.19\, \text{(syst.)}$ fb, respectively, in agreement with Standard Model predictions. The measurements are used to constrain anomalous quartic gauge couplings by extracting 95% confidence level intervals on dimension-8 operators. A search for doubly charged Higgs bosons $H^{\pm\pm}$ that are produced in vector-boson fusion processes and decay into a same-sign $W$ boson pair is performed. The largest deviation from the Standard Model occurs for an $H^{\pm\pm}$ mass near 450 GeV, with a global significance of 2.5 standard deviations.

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 $Wh$.

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.

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 $\kappa_{\lambda}$.

A search for a new massive charged gauge boson, $W'$, is performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The dataset used in this analysis was collected from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The reconstructed $tb$ invariant mass is used to search for a $W'$ boson decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark. The result is interpreted in terms of a $W'$ boson with purely right-handed or left-handed chirality in a mass range of 0.5-6 TeV. Different values for the coupling of the $W'$ boson to the top and bottom quarks are considered, taking into account interference with single-top-quark production in the $s$-channel. No significant deviation from the background prediction is observed. The results are expressed as upper limits on the $W' \rightarrow tb$ production cross-section times branching ratio as a function of the $W'$-boson mass and in the plane of the coupling vs the $W'$-boson mass.

A search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a $Z$ boson and a light, pseudoscalar particle, $a$, decaying respectively to two leptons and to two photons is reported. The search uses the full LHC Run 2 proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, corresponding to 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector. This is one of the first searches for this specific decay mode of the Higgs boson, and it probes unexplored parameter space in models with axion-like particles (ALPs) and extended scalar sectors. The mass of the $a$ particle is assumed to be in the range 0.1-33 GeV. The data are analysed in two categories: a merged category where the photons from the $a$ decay are reconstructed in the ATLAS calorimeter as a single cluster, and a resolved category in which two separate photons are detected. The main background processes are from Standard Model $Z$ boson production in association with photons or jets. The data are in agreement with the background predictions, and upper limits on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson decay to $Za$ times the branching ratio $a\to\gamma\gamma$ are derived at the 95% confidence level and they range from 0.08% to 2% depending on the mass of the $a$ particle. The results are also interpreted in the context of ALP models.