Differential cross-section measurements of $Z\gamma$ production in association with hadronic jets are presented, using the full 139 fb$^{-1}$ dataset of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the LHC. Distributions are measured using events in which the $Z$ boson decays leptonically and the photon is usually radiated from an initial-state quark. Measurements are made in both one and two observables, including those sensitive to the hard scattering in the event and others which probe additional soft and collinear radiation. Different Standard Model predictions, from both parton-shower Monte Carlo simulation and fixed-order QCD calculations, are compared with the measurements. In general, good agreement is observed between data and predictions from MATRIX and MiNNLO$_\text{PS}$, as well as next-to-leading-order predictions from MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and Sherpa.
Measured differential cross section as a function of observable $ p_{T}^{ll}$. Error on the measured cross-section include all the systematic uncertainties. SM predictions are produced with the event generators at particle level: Sherpa 2.2.4, Sherpa 2.2.11, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, and MiNNLO$_{PS}$. Fixed order calculations results use MATRIX NNLO. Error represent statistical uncertainty and theoretical uncertainty (PDF and Scale variations).
Measured differential cross section as a function of observable $ p_{T}^{ll} - p_{T}^{\gamma}$. Error on the measured cross-section include all the systematic uncertainties. SM predictions are produced with the event generators at particle level: Sherpa 2.2.4, Sherpa 2.2.11, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, and MiNNLO$_{PS}$. Fixed order calculations results use MATRIX NNLO. Error represent statistical uncertainty and theoretical uncertainty (PDF and Scale variations).
Measured differential cross section as a function of observable $ p_{T}^{ll} + p_{T}^{\gamma}$. Error on the measured cross-section include all the systematic uncertainties. SM predictions are produced with the event generators at particle level: Sherpa 2.2.4, Sherpa 2.2.11, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, and MiNNLO$_{PS}$. Fixed order calculations results use MATRIX NNLO. Error represent statistical uncertainty and theoretical uncertainty (PDF and Scale variations).
A search for the leptonic charge asymmetry ($A_\text{c}^{\ell}$) of top-quark$-$antiquark pair production in association with a $W$ boson ($t\bar{t}W$) is presented. The search is performed using final states with exactly three charged light leptons (electrons or muons) and is based on $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton$-$proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN during the years 2015$-$2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. A profile-likelihood fit to the event yields in multiple regions corresponding to positive and negative differences between the pseudorapidities of the charged leptons from top-quark and top-antiquark decays is used to extract the charge asymmetry. At reconstruction level, the asymmetry is found to be $-0.123 \pm 0.136$ (stat.) $\pm \, 0.051$ (syst.). An unfolding procedure is applied to convert the result at reconstruction level into a charge-asymmetry value in a fiducial volume at particle level with the result of $-0.112 \pm 0.170$ (stat.) $\pm \, 0.054$ (syst.). The Standard Model expectations for these two observables are calculated using Monte Carlo simulations with next-to-leading-order plus parton shower precision in quantum chromodynamics and including next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections. They are $-0.084 \, ^{+0.005}_{-0.003}$ (scale) $\pm\, 0.006$ (MC stat.) and $-0.063 \, ^{+0.007}_{-0.004}$ (scale) $\pm\, 0.004$ (MC stat.) respectively, and in agreement with the measurements.
Measured values of the leptonic charge asymmetry ($A_c^{\ell}$) in ttW production in the three lepton channel. Results are given at reconstruction level and at particle level. Expected values are obtained using the Sherpa MC generator.
Measurements of single-, double-, and triple-differential cross-sections are presented for boosted top-quark pair-production in 13 $\text{TeV}$ proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The top quarks are observed through their hadronic decay and reconstructed as large-radius jets with the leading jet having transverse momentum ($p_{\text{T}}$) greater than 500 GeV. The observed data are unfolded to remove detector effects. The particle-level cross-section, multiplied by the $t\bar{t} \rightarrow W W b \bar{b}$ branching fraction and measured in a fiducial phase space defined by requiring the leading and second-leading jets to have $p_{\text{T}} > 500$ GeV and $p_{\text{T}} > 350$ GeV, respectively, is $331 \pm 3 \text{(stat.)} \pm 39 \text{(syst.)}$ fb. This is approximately 20$\%$ lower than the prediction of $398^{+48}_{-49}$ fb by Powheg+Pythia 8 with next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy but consistent within the theoretical uncertainties. Results are also presented at the parton level, where the effects of top-quark decay, parton showering, and hadronization are removed such that they can be compared with fixed-order next-to-next-to-leading-order (NNLO) calculations. The parton-level cross-section, measured in a fiducial phase space similar to that at particle level, is $1.94 \pm 0.02 \text{(stat.)} \pm 0.25 \text{(syst.)}$ pb. This agrees with the NNLO prediction of $1.96^{+0.02}_{-0.17}$ pb. Reasonable agreement with the differential cross-sections is found for most NLO models, while the NNLO calculations are generally in better agreement with the data. The differential cross-sections are interpreted using a Standard Model effective field-theory formalism and limits are set on Wilson coefficients of several four-fermion operators.
Fiducial phase-space cross-section at particle level.
$p_{T}^{t}$ absolute differential cross-section at particle level.
$|y^{t}|$ absolute differential cross-section at particle level.
Cross-section measurements for a $Z$ boson produced in association with high-transverse-momentum jets ($p_{\mathrm{T}} \geq 100$ GeV) and decaying into a charged-lepton pair ($e^+e^-,\mu^+\mu^-$) are presented. The measurements are performed using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $139$ fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Measurements of angular correlations between the $Z$ boson and the closest jet are performed in events with at least one jet with $p_{\mathrm{T}} \geq 500$ GeV. Event topologies of particular interest are the collinear emission of a $Z$ boson in dijet events and a boosted $Z$ boson recoiling against a jet. Fiducial cross sections are compared with state-of-the-art theoretical predictions. The data are found to agree with next-to-next-to-leading-order predictions by NNLOjet and with the next-to-leading-order multi-leg generators MadGraph5_aMC@NLO and Sherpa.
Measured fiducial differential cross sections for the Z boson p$_{\mathrm{T}}$ in Z($\to \ell^{+} \ell^{-}$) + high p$_{\mathrm{T}}$ jets events. The statistical, systematic, and luminosity uncertainties are given.
Measured fiducial differential cross sections for the leading jet p$_{\mathrm{T}}$ in Z($\to \ell^{+} \ell^{-}$) + high p$_{\mathrm{T}}$ jets events. The statistical, systematic, and luminosity uncertainties are given.
Measured fiducial differential cross sections for the jet multiplicity in Z($\to \ell^{+} \ell^{-}$) + high p$_{\mathrm{T}}$ jets events. The statistical, systematic, and luminosity uncertainties are given.
A measurement of the top-quark mass ($m_t$) in the $t\bar{t}\rightarrow~\textrm{lepton}+\textrm{jets}$ channel is presented, with an experimental technique which exploits semileptonic decays of $b$-hadrons produced in the top-quark decay chain. The distribution of the invariant mass $m_{\ell\mu}$ of the lepton, $\ell$ (with $\ell=e,\mu$), from the $W$-boson decay and the muon, $\mu$, originating from the $b$-hadron decay is reconstructed, and a binned-template profile likelihood fit is performed to extract $m_t$. The measurement is based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13~\textrm{TeV}$$pp$ collisions provided by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector. The measured value of the top-quark mass is $m_{t} = 174.41\pm0.39~(\textrm{stat.})\pm0.66~(\textrm{syst.})\pm0.25~(\textrm{recoil})~\textrm{GeV}$, where the third uncertainty arises from changing the PYTHIA8 parton shower gluon-recoil scheme, used in top-quark decays, to a recently developed setup.
Top mass measurement result.
Measurements of Higgs boson production cross-sections are carried out in the diphoton decay channel using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The analysis is based on the definition of 101 distinct signal regions using machine-learning techniques. The inclusive Higgs boson signal strength in the diphoton channel is measured to be $1.04^{+0.10}_{-0.09}$. Cross-sections for gluon-gluon fusion, vector-boson fusion, associated production with a $W$ or $Z$ boson, and top associated production processes are reported. An upper limit of 10 times the Standard Model prediction is set for the associated production process of a Higgs boson with a single top quark, which has a unique sensitivity to the sign of the top quark Yukawa coupling. Higgs boson production is further characterized through measurements of Simplified Template Cross-Sections (STXS). In total, cross-sections of 28 STXS regions are measured. The measured STXS cross-sections are compatible with their Standard Model predictions, with a $p$-value of $93\%$. The measurements are also used to set constraints on Higgs boson coupling strengths, as well as on new interactions beyond the Standard Model in an effective field theory approach. No significant deviations from the Standard Model predictions are observed in these measurements, which provide significant sensitivity improvements compared to the previous ATLAS results.
Cross-sections times H->yy branching ratio for ggF +bbH, VBF, VH, ttH, and tH production, normalized to their SM predictions. The values are obtained from a simultaneous fit to all categories. The theory uncertainties in the predictions include uncertainties due to missing higher-order terms in the perturbative QCD calculations and choices of parton distribution functions and value of alpha_s, as well as the H->yy branching ratio uncertainty.
Correlation matrix for the measurement of production cross-sections of the Higgs boson times the H->yy branching ratio.
Best-fit values and uncertainties for STXS parameters in each of the 28 regions considered, normalized to their SM predictions. The values for the gg->H process also include the contributions from bbH production.
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.
The expected and observed upper limits at 95\% CL on the fiducial cross-section times branching ratio to two photons of a narrow-width ($\Gamma_{X}$ = 4 MeV) scalar resonance as a function of its mass $m_{X}$.
Diphoton invariant mass in the signal region using a 0.1 GeV binning.
Parametrization of the $C_{X}$ factor, defined as the ratio between the number of reconstructed signal events passing the analysis cuts and the number of signal events at the particle level generated within the fiducial volume, as function of $m_{X}$ obtained from the narrow width simulated signal samples produced in gluon fusion.
A search for Higgs boson pair production in events with two $b$-jets and two $\tau$-leptons is presented, using a proton-proton collision dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Higgs boson pairs produced non-resonantly or in the decay of a narrow scalar resonance in the mass range from 251 to 1600 GeV are targeted. Events in which at least one $\tau$-lepton decays hadronically are considered, and multivariate discriminants are used to reject the backgrounds. No significant excess of events above the expected background is observed in the non-resonant search. The largest excess in the resonant search is observed at a resonance mass of 1 TeV, with a local (global) significance of $3.1\sigma$ ($2.0\sigma$). Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits are set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at 4.7 (3.9) times the Standard Model prediction, assuming Standard Model kinematics, and on the resonant Higgs boson pair-production cross-section at between 21 and 900 fb (12 and 840 fb), depending on the mass of the narrow scalar resonance.
Breakdown of the relative contributions to the uncertainty in the extracted signal cross-sections, as determined in the likelihood fit (described in Section 8) to data. These are obtained by fixing the relevant nuisance parameters in the likelihood fit, and subtracting the obtained uncertainty on the fitted signal cross-sections in quadrature from the total uncertainty, and then dividing the result by the total uncertainty. The sum in quadrature of the individual components differs from the total uncertainty due to correlations between uncertainties in the different groups.
Post-fit expected number of signal and background events and observed number of data events in the last two bins of the non-resonant BDT score distribution of the SM signal after applying the selection criteria and requiring exactly 2 b-tagged jets and assuming a background-only hypothesis
Observed and expected upper limits at 95% CL on the cross-section of non-resonant HH production according to SM-like kinematics, and on the cross-section of non-resonant HH production divided by the SM prediction. The 1 sigma and 2 sigma variations around the expected limit are also shown.
The electroweak production of $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma$ in association with two jets is studied in a regime with a photon of high transverse momentum above 150 GeV using proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector during the 2015-2018 LHC data-taking period. This process is an important probe of the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism in the Standard Model and is sensitive to quartic gauge boson couplings via vector-boson scattering. The fiducial $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma jj$ cross section for electroweak production is measured to be 0.77$^{+0.34}_{-0.30}$ fb and is consistent with the Standard Model prediction. Evidence of electroweak $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma jj$ production is found with an observed significance of 3.2$\sigma$ for the background-only hypothesis, compared with an expected significance of 3.7$\sigma$. The combination of this result with the previously published ATLAS observation of electroweak $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma jj$ production yields an observed (expected) signal significance of 6.3$\sigma$ (6.6$\sigma$). Limits on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings are obtained in the framework of effective field theory with dimension-8 operators.
These graphs indicate the effect of the main theory uncertainties, which are associated with the renormalisation and factorisation scales (dashed cyan), underlying event and parton showering (UE+PS) or generator choice (dash-dotted red), alternative PDF sets (dotted orange), combined NNPDF set variation and $\alpha_s$ uncertainty (loosely dash-dotted green). These are shown in the signal region for the $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma jj$ EWK process. The BDT classifier response was remapped into equal width bins for better representation. The uncertainty band corresponds to the uncertainty due to the limited number of MC events.
These graphs indicate the effect of the main theory uncertainties, which are associated with the renormalisation and factorisation scales (dashed cyan), underlying event and parton showering (UE+PS) or generator choice (dash-dotted red), alternative PDF sets (dotted orange), combined NNPDF set variation and $\alpha_{s}$ uncertainty (loosely dash-dotted green). These are shown in the signal region for the $Z(\nu\bar{\nu})\gamma jj$ QCD process. The BDT classifier response was remapped into equal width bins for better representation. The uncertainty band corresponds to the uncertainty due to the limited number of MC events.
The $m_{jj}$ distributions for the CRs and the BDT classifier response distribution for the SR after the fit in all regions. The dashed line shows the total background distribution before the fit. The vertical error bars on the data points correspond to the data's statistical uncertainty. Overflows are included in the last bin. The uncertainty band corresponds to the combination of the MC statistical uncertainty and systematic uncertainties obtained in the fit.
A search for flavour-changing neutral current (FCNC) $tqH$ interactions involving a top quark, another up-type quark ($q=u$, $c$), and a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson decaying into a $\tau$-lepton pair ($H\rightarrow \tau^+\tau^-$) is presented. The search is based on a dataset of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Two processes are considered: single top quark FCNC production in association with a Higgs boson ($pp\rightarrow tH$), and top quark pair production in which one of the top quarks decays into $Wb$ and the other decays into $qH$ through the FCNC interactions. The search selects events with two hadronically decaying $\tau$-lepton candidates ($\tau_{\text{had}}$) or at least one $\tau_{\text{had}}$ with an additional lepton ($e$, $\mu$), as well as multiple jets. Event kinematics is used to separate signal from the background through a multivariate discriminant. A slight excess of data is observed with a significance of 2.3$\sigma$ above the expected SM background, and 95% CL upper limits on the $t\to qH$ branching ratios are derived. The observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits set on the $t\to cH$ and $t\to uH$ branching ratios are $9.4 \times 10^{-4}$ $(4.8^{+2.2}_{-1.4}\times 10^{-4})$ and $6.9\times 10^{-4}$ $(3.5^{+1.5}_{-1.0}\times 10^{-4})$, respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the dimension-6 operator Wilson coefficients in the effective $tqH$ couplings are $C_{c\phi} <1.35$ $(0.97)$ and $C_{u\phi} <1.16$ $(0.82)$.
Leading tau Pt distributions obtained before the fit to data (Pre-Fit) showing the expected background and tuH signals after applying fake factors in the $t_{\ell}\tau_{had}\tau_{had}$ region. Other MC includes single top, V+jets, and other small backgrounds. The tuH signals with nominal branching ratio of 0.1% are scaled using normalization factors of 2 to 50. Statistical and systematic uncertainties are included in the "Total background".
Leading tau Pt distributions obtained before the fit to data (Pre-Fit) showing the expected background and tuH signals after applying fake factors in the $t_{\ell}\tau_{had}$-1j region. Other MC includes single top, V+jets, and other small backgrounds. The tuH signals with nominal branching ratio of 0.1% are scaled using normalization factors of 2 to 50. Statistical and systematic uncertainties are included in the "Total background".
Leading tau Pt distributions obtained before the fit to data (Pre-Fit) showing the expected background and tuH signals after applying fake factors in the $t_{\ell}\tau_{had}$-2j region. Other MC includes single top, V+jets, and other small backgrounds. The tuH signals with nominal branching ratio of 0.1% are scaled using normalization factors of 2 to 50. Statistical and systematic uncertainties are included in the "Total background".