Exclusive dimuon production in ultraperipheral collisions (UPC), resulting from photon-photon interactions in the strong electromagnetic fields of colliding high-energy lead nuclei, $\mathrm{PbPb}(\gamma\gamma) \rightarrow \mu^+\mu^- (\mathrm{Pb}^{(\star)}\mathrm{Pb}^{(\star)} )$, is studied using $\mathcal{L}_{\mathrm{int}} = 0.48$ nb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=5.02$ TeV lead-lead collision data at the LHC with the ATLAS detector. Dimuon pairs are measured in the fiducial region $p_{\mathrm{T}\mu} > 4$ GeV, $|\eta_{\mu}| < 2.4$, invariant mass $m_{\mu\mu} > 10$ GeV, and $p_{\mathrm{T,\mu\mu}} < 2$ GeV. The primary background from single-dissociative processes is extracted from the data using a template fitting technique. Differential cross sections are presented as a function of $m_{\mu\mu}$, absolute pair rapidity ($|y_{\mu\mu}|$), scattering angle in the dimuon rest frame ($|\cos \vartheta^{\star}_{\mu\mu}|$) and the colliding photon energies. The total cross section of the UPC $\gamma \gamma \rightarrow \mu^{+}\mu^{-}$ process in the fiducial volume is measured to be $\sigma_{\mathrm{fid}}^{\mu\mu} = 34.1 \! \pm \! 0.3 \mathrm{(stat.)} \! \pm \! 0.7 \mathrm{(syst.)}$ $\mu\mathrm{b}$. Generally good agreement is found with calculations from STARlight, which incorporate the leading-order Breit-Wheeler process with no final-state effects, albeit differences between the measurements and theoretical expectations are observed. In particular, the measured cross sections at larger $|y_{\mu\mu}|$ are found to be about 10-20% larger in data than in the calculations, suggesting the presence of larger fluxes of photons in the initial state. Modification of the dimuon cross sections in the presence of forward and/or backward neutron production is also studied and is found to be associated with a harder incoming photon spectrum, consistent with expectations.
A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing hadronic jets, missing transverse momentum but no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2015 by the ATLAS experiment in $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV proton--proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation was observed in 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of analyzed data. Results are interpreted within simplified models that assume R-parity is conserved and the neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1.51 TeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino octet and the lightest neutralino, assuming the lightest neutralino is massless. For a simplified model involving the strong production of mass-degenerate first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 1.03 TeV are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino. These limits substantially extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous measurements with the ATLAS detector.
A search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles is performed in two-lepton and three-lepton final states using recursive jigsaw reconstruction. The search uses data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment in $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton--proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. Chargino-neutralino pair production, with decays via W/Z bosons, is studied in final states involving leptons and jets and missing transverse momentum for scenarios with large and intermediate mass-splittings between the parent particle and lightest supersymmetric particle, as well as for the scenario where this mass splitting is close to the mass of the Z boson. The latter case is challenging since the vector bosons are produced with kinematic properties that are similar to those in Standard Model processes. Results are found to be compatible with the Standard Model expectations in the signal regions targeting large and intermediate mass-splittings, and chargino-neutralino masses up to 600 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest supersymmetric particle. Excesses of data above the expected background are found in the signal regions targeting low mass-splittings, and the largest local excess amounts to 3.0 standard deviations.
We report measurements made with the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) of the total cross section for e+e−→hadrons at the ϒ(1S), ϒ(2S), and ϒ(3S), and in the nearby nonresonant continuum. We find R=3.77±0.06 (statistical) ± 0.24 (systematic) for the ratio of the nonresonant hadronic cross section to the cross section for muon-pair production at a center-of-mass total energy W=10.4 GeV. For the leptonic decay widths Γee of the ϒ(1S), ϒ(2S), and ϒ(3S) we obtain 1.30±0.05±0.08, 0.52±0.03±0.04, and 0.42±0.04±0.03 keV, respectively.
We report measurements of single-particle inclusive spectra and two-particle correlations in decays of the Υ(1S) resonance and in nonresonant annihilations of electrons and positrons at center-of-mass energy 10.49 GeV, just below BB¯ threshold. These data were obtained using the CLEO detector at the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) and provide information on the production of π, K, ρ, K*, φ, p, Λ, and Ξ in quark and gluon jets. The average multiplicity of hadrons per event for upsilon decays (compared with continuum annihilations) is 11.4 (10.5) pions, 2.4 (2.2) kaons, 0.6 (0.5) ρ0, 1.2 (0.8) K*, 0.6 (0.4) protons and antiprotons, 0.15 (0.08) φ, 0.19 (0.07) Λ and Λ¯, and 0.016 (0.005) Ξ− and Ξ¯ +. We have also seen evidence for η and f0 production. The most significant differences between upsilon and continuum final states are (1) the inclusive energy spectra fall off more rapidly with increasing particle energy in upsilon decays, (2) the production of heavier particles, especially baryons, is not as strongly suppressed in upsilon decays, and (3) baryon and antibaryon are more likely to be correlated at long range in upsilon decay than in continuum events.
We have measured the inclusive branching ratio for B→φX to be 0.023±0.006±0.005. The momentum distribution of the φ mesons is compared with that expected from the cascade decays B→F→φ and B→D→φ. .AE
We have measured the inclusive branching ratio for B→ψX to be (1.09±0.16±0.21)%, and the exclusive branching ratios for B−→ψK− and B¯ ¯0 *0 to be (0.09±0.05)% and (0.41±0.18)%, respectively. The mass difference between neutral and charged B mesons is 1.1±2.1 MeV, while the difference between the mass of Υ(4S) and twice the mean B-meson mass is 18.5±3.0 MeV. The ψ momentum distribution implies a substantial two-body decay (in agreement with direct measurements), but also some combination of B→ψX with MX>1.5 GeV, and B→ψ’X.
We have observed decays of the ϒ(1S) into hadronic final states containing high-energy photons. These are interpreted as coming from the decay ϒ(1S)→γ+gluon+gluon. We compare the shape of the observed photon energy spectrum with several theoretical predictions and deduce the value of the strong-coupling constant αs and the QCD scale parameter ΛMS― (MS― denotes the modified minimal-subtraction scheme) associated with each prediction.
A measurement of observables sensitive to effects of colour reconnection in top-quark pair-production events is presented using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of 13$\,$TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected by requiring exactly one isolated electron and one isolated muon with opposite charge and two or three jets, where exactly two jets are required to be $b$-tagged. For the selected events, measurements are presented for the charged-particle multiplicity, the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the charged particles, and the same scalar sum in bins of charged-particle multiplicity. These observables are unfolded to the stable-particle level, thereby correcting for migration effects due to finite detector resolution, acceptance and efficiency effects. The particle-level measurements are compared with different colour reconnection models in Monte Carlo generators. These measurements disfavour some of the colour reconnection models and provide inputs to future optimisation of the parameters in Monte Carlo generators.
A measurement of the energy asymmetry in jet-associated top-quark pair production is presented using 139 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The observable measures the different probability of top and antitop quarks to have the higher energy as a function of the jet scattering angle with respect to the beam axis. The energy asymmetry is measured in the semileptonic $t\bar{t}$ decay channel, and the hadronically decaying top quark must have transverse momentum above $350$ GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects to particle level in three bins of the scattering angle of the associated jet. The measurement agrees with the SM prediction at next-to-leading-order accuracy in quantum chromodynamics in all three bins. In the bin with the largest expected asymmetry, where the jet is emitted perpendicular to the beam, the energy asymmetry is measured to be $-0.043\pm0.020$, in agreement with the SM prediction of $-0.037\pm0.003$. Interpreting this result in the framework of the Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT), it is shown that the energy asymmetry is sensitive to the top-quark chirality in four-quark operators and is therefore a valuable new observable in global SMEFT fits.
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