A search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into $W^\pm W^\pm$ or $W^\pm Z$ bosons is performed, involving experimental signatures with two leptons of the same charge, or three or four leptons with a variety of charge combinations, missing transverse momentum and jets. A data sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 is used. The data correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The search is guided by a type-II seesaw model that extends the scalar sector of the Standard Model with a scalar triplet, leading to a phenomenology that includes doubly and singly charged Higgs bosons. Two scenarios are explored, corresponding to the pair production of doubly charged $H^{\pm\pm}$ bosons, or the associated production of a doubly charged $H^{\pm\pm}$ boson and a singly charged $H^\pm$ boson. No significant deviations from the Standard Model predictions are observed. $H^{\pm\pm}$ bosons are excluded at 95% confidence level up to 350 GeV and 230 GeV for the pair and associated production modes, respectively.
Distribution of $E_{T}^{miss}$, which is one of the discriminating variables used to define the $2\ell^{sc}$ SRs. The events are selected with the preselection requirements listed in Table 4 in the paper. The data (dots) are compared with the expected contributions from the relevant background sources (histograms). The expected signal distributions for $m_{H^{\pm\pm}} = 300~GeV$ are also shown, scaled to the observed number of events. The last bin includes overflows.
Distribution of $\Delta R_{\ell^{\pm}\ell^{\pm}}$, which is one of the discriminating variables used to define the $2\ell^{sc}$ SRs. The events are selected with the preselection requirements listed in Table 4 in the paper. The data (dots) are compared with the expected contributions from the relevant background sources (histograms). The expected signal distributions for $m_{H^{\pm\pm}} = 300~GeV$ are also shown, scaled to the observed number of events. The last bin includes overflows.
Distribution of $M_{jets}$, which is one of the discriminating variables used to define the $2\ell^{sc}$ SRs. The events are selected with the preselection requirements listed in Table 4 in the paper. The data (dots) are compared with the expected contributions from the relevant background sources (histograms). The expected signal distributions for $m_{H^{\pm\pm}} = 300~GeV$ are also shown, scaled to the observed number of events. The last bin includes overflows.
A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks decaying into a top quark and a $\tau$-lepton is presented. The search is based on a dataset of $pp$ 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 139 fb$^{-1}$. Events are selected if they have one light lepton (electron or muon) and at least one hadronically decaying $\tau$-lepton, or at least two light leptons. In addition, two or more jets, at least one of which must be identified as containing $b$-hadrons, are required. Six final states, defined by the multiplicity and flavour of lepton candidates, are considered in the analysis. Each of them is split into multiple event categories to simultaneously search for the signal and constrain several leading backgrounds. The signal-rich event categories require at least one hadronically decaying $\tau$-lepton candidate and exploit the presence of energetic final-state objects, which is characteristic of signal events. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed in any of the considered event categories, and 95% CL upper limits are set on the production cross section as a function of the leptoquark mass, for different assumptions about the branching fractions into $t\tau$ and $b\nu$. Scalar leptoquarks decaying exclusively into $t\tau$ are excluded up to masses of 1.43 TeV while, for a branching fraction of 50% into $t\tau$, the lower mass limit is 1.22 TeV.
Selection efficiency times acceptance summed over the seven signal regions as a function of $m_{\mathrm{LQ}_{3}^{\mathrm{d}}}$, assuming B = 1.
Selection efficiency times acceptance summed over the seven signal regions as a function of $m_{\mathrm{LQ}_{3}^{\mathrm{d}}}$, assuming B = 1.
Summary of the observed and expected 95% CL upper limits on the cross section for $\mathrm{LQ}_{3}^{\mathrm{d}}$ pair production as a function of $m_{\mathrm{LQ}_{3}^{\mathrm{d}}}$ under the assumptions of B=1.
A search for supersymmetry in events with four or more charged leptons (electrons, muons and $\tau$-leptons) is presented. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to $139\,\mbox{fb\(^{-1}\)}$ of proton-proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. Four-lepton signal regions with up to two hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons are designed to target several supersymmetric models, while a general five-lepton signal region targets any new physics phenomena leading to a final state with five charged leptons. Data yields are consistent with Standard Model expectations and results are used to set upper limits on contributions from processes beyond the Standard Model. Exclusion limits are set at the 95% confidence level in simplified models of general gauge-mediated supersymmetry, excluding higgsino masses up to $540$ GeV. In $R$-parity-violating simplified models with decays of the lightest supersymmetric particle to charged leptons, lower limits of $1.6$ TeV, $1.2$ TeV, and $2.5$ TeV are placed on wino, slepton and gluino masses, respectively.
The $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ distribution in SR0-ZZ$^{\mathrm{loose}}$ and SR0-ZZ$^{\mathrm{tight}}$ for events passing the signal region requirements except the $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ requirement. Distributions for data, the estimated SM backgrounds after the background-only fit, and an example SUSY scenario are shown. "Other" is the sum of the $tWZ$, $t\bar{t}WW$, $t\bar{t} ZZ$, $t\bar{t} WH$, $t\bar{t} HH$, $t\bar{t} tW$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ backgrounds. The last bin captures the overflow events. The lower panel shows the ratio of the observed data to the expected SM background yield in each bin. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the SM background are included in the shaded band. The red arrows indicate the $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ selections in the signal regions.
The $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ distribution in SR0-ZZ$_{\mathrm{bveto}}^{\mathrm{loose}}$ and SR0-ZZ$_{\mathrm{bveto}}^{\mathrm{tight}}$ for events passing the signal region requirements except the $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ requirement. Distributions for data, the estimated SM backgrounds after the background-only fit, and an example SUSY scenario are shown. "Other" is the sum of the $tWZ$, $t\bar{t}WW$, $t\bar{t} ZZ$, $t\bar{t} WH$, $t\bar{t} HH$, $t\bar{t} tW$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ backgrounds. The last bin captures the overflow events. The lower panel shows the ratio of the observed data to the expected SM background yield in each bin. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the SM background are included in the shaded band. The red arrows indicate the $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ selections in the signal regions.
The $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ distribution in SR5L. Distributions for data, the estimated SM backgrounds after the background-only fit, and an example SUSY scenario are shown. "Other" is the sum of the $tWZ$, $t\bar{t}WW$, $t\bar{t} ZZ$, $t\bar{t} WH$, $t\bar{t} HH$, $t\bar{t} tW$, and $t\bar{t}t\bar{t}$ backgrounds. The last bin captures the overflow events. The lower panel shows the ratio of the observed data to the expected SM background yield in each bin. Both the statistical and systematic uncertainties in the SM background are included in the shaded band.
Measurements of four-lepton differential and integrated fiducial cross-sections in events with two same-flavour, opposite-charge electron or muon pairs are presented. The data correspond to 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton collisions, collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (2015-2018). The final state has contributions from a number of interesting Standard Model processes that dominate in different four-lepton invariant mass regions, including single $Z$ boson production, Higgs boson production and on-shell $ZZ$ production, with a complex mix of interference terms, and possible contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. The differential cross-sections include the four-lepton invariant mass inclusively, in slices of other kinematic variables, and in different lepton flavour categories. Also measured are dilepton invariant masses, transverse momenta, and angular correlation variables, in four regions of four-lepton invariant mass, each dominated by different processes. The measurements are corrected for detector effects and are compared with state-of-the-art Standard Model calculations, which are found to be consistent with the data. The $Z\rightarrow 4\ell$ branching fraction is extracted, giving a value of $\left(4.41 \pm 0.30\right) \times 10^{-6}$. Constraints on effective field theory parameters and a model based on a spontaneously broken $B-L$ gauge symmetry are also evaluated. Further reinterpretations can be performed with the provided information.
Inclusive differential cross section for four leptons (Max = 1710~GeV).
Inclusive differential cross section for four muons (Max = 1320~GeV)
Inclusive differential cross section for four electrons (Max = 887~GeV).
A search for dark-matter particles in events with large missing transverse momentum and a Higgs boson candidate decaying into two photons is reported. The search uses $139$ fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC between 2015 and 2018. No significant excess of events over the Standard Model predictions is observed. The results are interpreted by extracting limits on three simplified models that include either vector or pseudoscalar mediators and predict a final state with a pair of dark-matter candidates and a Higgs boson decaying into two photons.
The $E^{miss}_{T}$ distribution of data and MC after the diphoton selection.
The observed exclusion contor for the $Z^{\prime}_{B}$ model in the $m_{\chi}$-$m_{Z^{\prime}_{B}}$ plane.
The expected exclusion contor for the $Z^{\prime}_{B}$ model in the $m_{\chi}$-$m_{Z^{\prime}_{B}}$ plane.
A search for charged Higgs bosons decaying into a top quark and a bottom quark is presented. The data analysed correspond to 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=13TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The production of a heavy charged Higgs boson in association with a top quark and a bottom quark, $pp\rightarrow tbH^{+}\rightarrow tbtb$, is explored in the $H^+$ mass range from 200 to 2000 GeV using final states with jets and one electron or muon. Events are categorised according to the multiplicity of jets and $b$-tagged jets, and multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate between signal and background events. No significant excess above the background-only hypothesis is observed and exclusion limits are derived for the production cross-section times branching ratio of a charged Higgs boson as a function of its mass; they range from 3.6 pb at 200 GeV to 0.036 pb at 2000 GeV at 95% confidence level. The results are interpreted in the hMSSM and $M_h^{125}$ scenarios.
Observed and expected upper limits for the production of $H^+\rightarrow tb$ in association with a top quark and a bottom quark. The bands surrounding the expected limit show the 68% and 95% confidence intervals. The red lines show the observed and expected 95% CL exclusion limits obtained with the 36 fb$^{-1}$ data sample. Theory predictions are shown for two representative values of $\tan\beta$ in the hMSSM benchmark scenario. Uncertainties in the predicted $H^+$ cross-sections or branching ratios are not considered.
Observed and expected limits on $\tan\beta$ as a function of $m_{H^+}$ in the hMSSM scenario. Limits are shown for $\tan\beta$ values in the range of 0.5-60 due to the availability of the model prediction. The bands surrounding the expected limits show the 68% and 95% confidence intervals. Uncertainties in the predicted $H^+$ cross-sections or branching ratios are not considered.
Observed and expected limits on $\tan\beta$ as a function of $m_{H^+}$ in the $M_h^{125}$ scenario. Limits are shown for $\tan\beta$ values in the range of 0.5-60 due to the availability of the model prediction. The bands surrounding the expected limits show the 68% and 95% confidence intervals. Uncertainties in the predicted $H^+$ cross-sections or branching ratios are not considered.
Electroweak symmetry breaking explains the origin of the masses of elementary particles through their interactions with the Higgs field. Besides the measurements of the Higgs boson properties, the study of the scattering of massive vector bosons with spin one allows the nature of electroweak symmetry breaking to be probed. Among all processes related to vector-boson scattering, the electroweak production of two jets and a $Z$-boson pair is a rare and important one. Here we report the observation of this process from proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139/fb recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. We consider two different final states originating from the decays of the $Z$-boson pair - one containing four charged leptons and the other containing two charged leptons and two neutrinos. The hypothesis of no electroweak production is rejected with a statistical significance of 5.7 $\sigma$, and the measured cross-section for electroweak production is consistent with the standard model prediction. In addition, we report cross-sections for inclusive production of a $Z$-boson pair and two jets for the two final states.
Measured and predicted fiducial cross-sections in both the lllljj and ll$\nu\nu$jj channels for the inclusive ZZjj processes. Uncertainties due to different sources are presented
Signal strength and significance of EW ZZjj processes
Signal strength and significance of EW ZZjj processes
Differential and double-differential distributions of kinematic variables of leptons from decays of top-quark pairs ($t\bar{t}$) are measured using the full LHC Run 2 data sample collected with the ATLAS detector. The data were collected at a $pp$ collision energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The measurements use events containing an oppositely charged $e\mu$ pair and $b$-tagged jets. The results are compared with predictions from several Monte Carlo generators. While no prediction is found to be consistent with all distributions, a better agreement with measurements of the lepton $p_{\text{T}}$ distributions is obtained by reweighting the $t\bar{t}$ sample so as to reproduce the top-quark $p_{\text{T}}$ distribution from an NNLO calculation. The inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section is measured as well, both in a fiducial region and in the full phase-space. The total inclusive cross-section is found to be \[ \sigma_{t\bar{t}} = 829 \pm 1\;(\textrm{stat}) \pm 13\;(\textrm{syst}) \pm 8\;(\textrm{lumi}) \pm 2\; (\textrm{beam})\ \textrm{pb}, \] where the uncertainties are due to statistics, systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the beam energy. This is in excellent agreement with the theoretical expectation.
Definition of the fiducial phase space with the lepton candidate, electron $e$ and muon $\mu$, and jets.
Breakdown of systematic uncertainties in the measured fiducial cross-section. The impact of the top-quark mass on the cross-section is included in the table and not counted in the total uncertainty entry in the paper.
Data bootstrap post unfolding for the fiducial cross-section. The replicas are obtained by reweighting each observed data event by a random integer generated according to Poisson statistics, using the BootstrapGenerator software package (https://gitlab.cern.ch/atlas-physics/sm/StandardModelTools_BootstrapGenerator/BootstrapGenerator), which implements a technique described in ATL-PHYS-PUB-2021-011 (https://cds.cern.ch/record/2759945). The ATLAS event number and run number of each event are used as seed to uniquely but reproducibly initialise the random number generator for each event. All the provided numbers originate from pseudo-data, including the 0th entry, and are in units of [fb].
A study of multiplicity and pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons measured in pp and p$-$Pb collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon$-$nucleon collision of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV using the ALICE detector in the forward pseudorapidity region $2.3 < \eta_{\rm lab} < 3.9$ is presented. Measurements in p$-$Pb collisions are reported for two beam configurations in which the directions of the proton and lead ion beam were reversed. The pseudorapidity distributions in p$-$Pb collisions are obtained for seven centrality classes which are defined based on different event activity estimators, i.e., the charged-particle multiplicity measured at midrapidity as well as the energy deposited in a calorimeter at beam rapidity. The inclusive photon multiplicity distributions for both pp and p$-$Pb collisions are described by double negative binomial distributions. The pseudorapidity distributions of inclusive photons are compared to those of charged particles at midrapidity in \pp collisions and for different centrality classes in p$-$Pb collisions. The results are compared to predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators. None of the generators considered in this paper reproduces the inclusive photon multiplicity distributions in the reported multiplicity range. The pseudorapidity distributions are, however, better described by the same generators.
Inclusive photon multiplicity distribution measured within $2.3<\eta_{\rm lab}<3.9$ in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 5020~\mathrm{GeV}$.
Inclusive photon multiplicity distribution measured within $2.3<\eta_{\rm lab}<3.9$ in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5020~\mathrm{GeV}$.
Inclusive photon multiplicity distribution measured within $2.3<\eta_{\rm lab}<3.9$ in Pb-p collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5020~\mathrm{GeV}$.
This paper describes a measurement of light-by-light scattering based on Pb+Pb collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the LHC. The study uses $2.2$ nb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected in 2015 and 2018 at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Light-by-light scattering candidates are selected in events with two photons produced exclusively, each with transverse energy $E_{\mathrm{T}}^{\gamma} > 2.5$ GeV, pseudorapidity $|\eta_{\gamma}| < 2.37$, diphoton invariant mass $m_{\gamma\gamma} > 5$ GeV, and with small diphoton transverse momentum and diphoton acoplanarity. The integrated and differential fiducial cross sections are measured and compared with theoretical predictions. The diphoton invariant mass distribution is used to set limits on the production of axion-like particles. This result provides the most stringent limits to date on axion-like particle production for masses in the range 6-100 GeV. Cross sections above 2 to 70 nb are excluded at the 95% CL in that mass interval.
Measured differential fiducial cross sections of $\gamma\gamma \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ production in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for diphoton invariant mass are shown as points with error bars giving the statistical uncertainty and grey bands indicating the size of the total uncertainty. The results are compared with the prediction from the SuperChic v3.0 MC generator (solid line) with bands denoting the theoretical uncertainty.
Measured normalised differential fiducial cross sections of $\gamma\gamma \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ production in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for diphoton invariant mass are shown as points with error bars giving the statistical uncertainty and grey bands indicating the size of the total uncertainty. The results are compared with the prediction from the SuperChic v3.0 MC generator (solid line).
Measured differential fiducial cross sections of $\gamma\gamma \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ production in Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV for diphoton $|cos(\theta*)|$ are shown as points with error bars giving the statistical uncertainty and grey bands indicating the size of the total uncertainty. The results are compared with the prediction from the SuperChic v3.0 MC generator (solid line) with bands denoting the theoretical uncertainty.