A search has been performed for heavy resonances decaying to ZZ or ZW and for axion-like particles (ALPs) mediating nonresonant ZZ or ZH production, in final states with two charged leptons ($\ell$ = e, $\mu$) produced by the decay of a Z boson, and two quarks produced by the decay of a Z, W, or Higgs boson H. The analysis is sensitive to resonances with masses in the range 450 to 2000 GeV. Two categories are defined corresponding to the merged or resolved reconstruction of the hadronically decaying boson. The search is based on data collected during 2016-2018 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess is observed in the data above the standard model background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section of heavy, narrow spin-2 and spin-1 resonances are derived as functions of the resonance mass, and exclusion limits on the production of bulk graviton particles and W$'$ bosons are calculated in the framework of the warped extra dimensions and heavy vector triplet models, respectively. In addition, upper limits on the ALP-mediated diboson production cross section and ALP couplings to standard model particles are obtained in the framework of linear and chiral effective field theories. These are the first limits on nonresonant ALP-mediated ZZ and ZH production obtained by the LHC experiments.
SR1 diboson invariant mass distribution in the boosted untagged category after fitting the signal and sideband regions using a signal (ALP linear ZZ) plus background model. The last bin includes events with diboson invariant masses up to 3000 GeV. The signal is normalized to the 95% CL cross section limit at $f_a$ = 3 TeV (the scale factor used in the original figure for better visibility is not applied here).
SR1 diboson invariant mass distribution in the boosted tagged category after fitting the signal and sideband regions using a signal (ALP linear ZZ) plus background model. The last bin includes events with diboson invariant masses up to 3000 GeV. The signal is normalized to the 95% CL cross section limit at $f_a$ = 3 TeV.
SR1 diboson invariant mass distribution in the resolved untagged category after fitting the signal and sideband regions using a signal (ALP linear ZZ) plus background model. The last bin includes events with diboson invariant masses up to 3000 GeV. The signal is normalized to the 95% CL cross section limit at $f_a$ = 3 TeV (the scale factor used in the original figure for better visibility is not applied here).
Measurements of $ZZ$ production in the $\ell^{+}\ell^{-}\ell^{\prime +}\ell^{\prime -}$ channel in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV center-of-mass energy at the Large Hadron Collider are presented. The data correspond to 36.1 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2015 and 2016. Here $\ell$ and $\ell'$ stand for electrons or muons. Integrated and differential $ZZ \to \ell^{+}\ell^{-}\ell^{\prime +}\ell^{\prime -}$ cross sections with $Z \to \ell^+\ell^-$ candidate masses in the range of 66 GeV to 116 GeV are measured in a fiducial phase space corresponding to the detector acceptance and corrected for detector effects. The differential cross sections are presented in bins of twenty observables, including several that describe the jet activity. The integrated cross section is also extrapolated to a total phase space and to all Standard-Model decays of $Z$ bosons with mass between 66 GeV and 116 GeV, resulting in a value of $17.3 \pm 0.9$ [$\pm 0.6$ (stat.) $\pm 0.5$ (syst.) $\pm 0.6$ (lumi.)] pb. The measurements are found to be in good agreement with the Standard-Model predictions. A search for neutral triple gauge couplings is performed using the transverse momentum distribution of the leading $Z$-boson candidate. No evidence for such couplings is found and exclusion limits are set on their parameters.
Integrated fiducial cross sections. Fiducial phase space - At least 4 electrons, 4 muons, or 2 electrons and 2 muons forming two same-flavour opposite-charge dileptons (Z candidates) - Lepton pairing ambiguities are resolved by choosing the combination that results in the smaller value of the sum of |mll - mZ| for the two pairs, where mll is the mass of the dilepton system and mZ the Z boson pole mass - Lepton absolute pseudorapidity |eta| < 2.7 - Lepton transverse momentum pT > 5 GeV - The three leading-pT leptons satisfy pT > 20 GeV, 15 GeV, 10 GeV - Angular separation of any same-flavour (opposite-flavour) leptons DeltaR > 0.1 (0.2) - Both chosen dileptons have invariant mass between 66 GeV and 116 GeV - All possible same-flavour opposite-charge dileptons have mass > 5 GeV Details about the fiducial definition as well as all other aspects of the analysis can be found in the journal publication.
Differential fiducial cross section as function of the transverse momentum of the four-lepton system. Fiducial phase space - At least 4 electrons, 4 muons, or 2 electrons and 2 muons forming two same-flavour opposite-charge dileptons (Z candidates) - Lepton pairing ambiguities are resolved by choosing the combination that results in the smaller value of the sum of |mll - mZ| for the two pairs, where mll is the mass of the dilepton system and mZ the Z boson pole mass - Lepton absolute pseudorapidity |eta| < 2.7 - Lepton transverse momentum pT > 5 GeV - The three leading-pT leptons satisfy pT > 20 GeV, 15 GeV, 10 GeV - Angular separation of any same-flavour (opposite-flavour) leptons DeltaR > 0.1 (0.2) - Both chosen dileptons have invariant mass between 66 GeV and 116 GeV - All possible same-flavour opposite-charge dileptons have mass > 5 GeV Details about the fiducial definition as well as all other aspects of the analysis can be found in the journal publication.
Predicted background as function of the transverse momentum of the four-lepton system.
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