The fragmentation properties of jets containing $b$-hadrons are studied using charged $B$ mesons in 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the period from 2015 to 2018. The $B$ mesons are reconstructed using the decay of $B^{\pm}$ into $J/\psi K^{\pm}$, with the $J/\psi$ decaying into a pair of muons. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R=0.4$. The measurement determines the longitudinal and transverse momentum profiles of the reconstructed $B$ hadrons with respect to the axes of the jets to which they are geometrically associated. These distributions are measured in intervals of the jet transverse momentum, ranging from 50 GeV to above 100 GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared with several Monte Carlo predictions using different parton shower and hadronisation models. The results for the longitudinal and transverse profiles provide useful inputs to improve the description of heavy-flavour fragmentation in jets.
A dedicated sample of Large Hadron Collider proton-proton collision data at centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV is used to study inclusive single diffractive dissociation, $pp \rightarrow Xp$. The intact final-state proton is reconstructed in the ATLAS ALFA forward spectrometer, while charged particles from the dissociated system $X$ are measured in the central detector components. The fiducial range of the measurement is $-4.0 < \log_{10} \xi < -1.6$ and $0.016 < |t| < 0.43 \ {\rm GeV^2}$, where $\xi$ is the proton fractional energy loss and $t$ is the squared four-momentum transfer. The total cross section integrated across the fiducial range is $1.59 \pm 0.13 \ {\rm mb}$. Cross sections are also measured differentially as functions of $\xi$, $t$, and $\Delta \eta$, a variable that characterises the rapidity gap separating the proton and the system $X$. The data are consistent with an exponential $t$ dependence, ${\rm d} \sigma / {\rm d} t \propto \text{e}^{Bt}$ with slope parameter $B = 7.65 \pm 0.34 \ {\rm GeV^{-2}}$. Interpreted in the framework of triple Regge phenomenology, the $\xi$ dependence leads to a pomeron intercept of $\alpha(0) = 1.07 \pm 0.09$.
A study of the charge conjugation and parity ($CP$) properties of the interaction between the Higgs boson and $\tau$-leptons is presented. The study is based on a measurement of $CP$-sensitive angular observables defined by the visible decay products of $\tau$-lepton decays, where at least one hadronic decay is required. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton$-$proton collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Contributions from $CP$-violating interactions between the Higgs boson and $\tau$-leptons are described by a single mixing angle parameter $\phi_{\tau}$ in the generalised Yukawa interaction. Without assuming the Standard Model hypothesis for the $H\rightarrow\tau\tau$ signal strength, the mixing angle $\phi_{\tau}$ is measured to be $9^{\circ} \pm 16^{\circ}$, with an expected value of $0^{\circ} \pm 28^{\circ}$ at the 68% confidence level. The pure $CP$-odd hypothesis is disfavoured at a level of 3.4 standard deviations. The results are compatible with the predictions for the Higgs boson in the Standard Model.
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.
Two-particle angular correlations between unidentified charged trigger and associated particles are measured by the ALICE detector in p-Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The transverse-momentum range 0.7 $ < p_{\rm{T}, assoc} < p_{\rm{T}, trig} <$ 5.0 GeV/$c$ is examined, to include correlations induced by jets originating from low momen\-tum-transfer scatterings (minijets). The correlations expressed as associated yield per trigger particle are obtained in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<0.9$. The near-side long-range pseudorapidity correlations observed in high-multiplicity p-Pb collisions are subtracted from both near-side short-range and away-side correlations in order to remove the non-jet-like components. The yields in the jet-like peaks are found to be invariant with event multiplicity with the exception of events with low multiplicity. This invariance is consistent with the particles being produced via the incoherent fragmentation of multiple parton--parton scatterings, while the yield related to the previously observed ridge structures is not jet-related. The number of uncorrelated sources of particle production is found to increase linearly with multiplicity, suggesting no saturation of the number of multi-parton interactions even in the highest multiplicity p-Pb collisions. Further, the number scales in the intermediate multiplicity region with the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions estimated with a Glauber Monte-Carlo simulation.
A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 $\text{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$=13 $\text{TeV}$ recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 $\text{GeV}$ and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of $0.145$ is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of $0.103$. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 $\text{GeV}$ to 2 $\text{TeV}$ are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 $\text{pb}$ for a scalar boson mass of 50 $\text{GeV}$ to 0.1 $\text{pb}$ at a mass of 2 $\text{TeV}$.
We present the first wide-range measurement of the charged-particle pseudorapidity density distribution, for different centralities (the 0-5%, 5-10%, 10-20%, and 20-30% most central events) in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the LHC. The measurement is performed using the full coverage of the ALICE detectors, $-5.0 < \eta < 5.5$, and employing a special analysis technique based on collisions arising from LHC "satellite" bunches. We present the pseudorapidity density as a function of the number of participating nucleons as well as an extrapolation to the total number of produced charged particles ($N_{\rm ch} = 17165 \pm 772$ for the 0-5% most central collisions). From the measured ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}\eta$ distribution we derive the rapidity density distribution, ${\rm d}N_{\rm ch}/{\rm d}y$, under simple assumptions. The rapidity density distribution is found to be significantly wider than the predictions of the Landau model. We assess the validity of longitudinal scaling by comparing to lower energy results from RHIC. Finally the mechanisms of the underlying particle production are discussed based on a comparison with various theoretical models.
We report on the measurement of freeze-out radii for pairs of identical-charge pions measured in Pb--Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV as a function of collision centrality and the average transverse momentum of the pair $k_{\rm T}$. Three-dimensional sizes of the system (femtoscopic radii), as well as direction-averaged one-dimensional radii are extracted. The radii decrease with $k_{\rm T}$, following a power-law behavior. This is qualitatively consistent with expectations from a collectively expanding system, produced in hydrodynamic calculations. The radii also scale linearly with $\left< \mathrm{d}N_{\rm ch}/\mathrm{d}\eta \right>^{1/3}$. This behaviour is compared to world data on femtoscopic radii in heavy-ion collisions. While the dependence is qualitatively similar to results at smaller $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$, a decrease in the $R_{\rm out}/R_{\rm side}$ ratio is seen, which is in qualitative agreement with specific predictions from hydrodynamic models. The results provide further evidence for the production of a collective, strongly coupled system in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC.
A search for Higgs boson decays into a $Z$ boson and a light resonance in two-lepton plus jet events is performed, using a $pp$ collision dataset with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC. The resonance considered is a light boson with a mass below 4 GeV from a possible extended scalar sector, or a charmonium state. Multivariate discriminants are used for the event selection and for evaluating the mass of the light resonance. No excess of events above the expected background is found. Observed (expected) 95$\% $ confidence-level upper limits are set on the Higgs boson production cross section times branching fraction to a $Z$ boson and the signal resonance, with values in the range 17 pb to 340 pb ($16^{+6}_{-5}$ pb to $320^{+130}_{-90}$ pb) for the different light spin-0 boson mass and branching fraction hypotheses, and with values of 110 pb and 100 pb ($100^{+40}_{-30}$ pb and $100^{+40}_{-30}$ pb) for the $\eta_c$ and $J/\psi$ hypotheses, respectively.
Correlations induced by quantum statistics are sensitive to the spatio-temporal extent as well as dynamics of particle emitting sources in heavy-ion collisions. In addition, such correlations can be used to search for the presence of a coherent component of pion production. Two and three-pion correlations of same and mixed-charge are measured at low relative momentum to estimate the coherent fraction of charged pions in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76$ TeV at the LHC with ALICE. The genuine three-pion quantum statistics correlation is found to be suppressed relative to the two-pion correlation based on the assumption of fully chaotic pion emission. The suppression is observed to decrease with triplet momentum. The observed suppression at low triplet momentum may correspond to a coherent fraction in charged pion emission of 23% $\pm$ 8%.
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