A search for long-lived particles decaying into hadrons is presented. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data collected at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC using events that contain multiple energetic jets and a displaced vertex. The search employs dedicated reconstruction techniques that significantly increase the sensitivity to long-lived particles decaying in the ATLAS inner detector. Background estimates for Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are compatible with those expected from background processes. The results are used to set limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model, and on scenarios with pair-production of supersymmetric particles with long-lived electroweakinos that decay via a small $R$-parity-violating coupling. The pair-production of electroweakinos with masses below 1.5 TeV is excluded for mean proper lifetimes in the range from 0.03 ns to 1 ns. When produced in the decay of $m(\tilde{g})=2.4$ TeV gluinos, electroweakinos with $m(\tilde\chi^0_1)=1.5$ TeV are excluded with lifetimes in the range of 0.02 ns to 4 ns.
Reinterpretation Material: Vertex-level Efficiency for R < 22 mm
Reinterpretation Material: Vertex-level Efficiency for R [22, 25] mm
This paper presents a study of $Z \to ll\gamma~$decays with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis uses a proton-proton data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ collected at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV. Integrated fiducial cross-sections together with normalised differential fiducial cross-sections, sensitive to the kinematics of final-state QED radiation, are obtained. The results are found to be in agreement with state-of-the-art predictions for final-state QED radiation. First measurements of $Z \to ll\gamma\gamma$ decays are also reported.
Unfolded dR distribution for $Z \to \mu\mu\gamma$ process with bare leptons and bkg subtraction. $M_{ll}>20$ GeV. Nexp.un f. = 65362.4 $\pm$ 255.7 , NPowHeg truth =634214.
New particles with large masses that decay into hadronically interacting particles are predicted by many models of physics beyond the Standard Model. A search for a massive resonance that decays into pairs of dijet resonances is performed using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton$-$proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. Resonances are searched for in the invariant mass of the tetrajet system, and in the average invariant mass of the pair of dijet systems. A data-driven background estimate is obtained by fitting the tetrajet and dijet invariant mass distributions with a four-parameter dijet function and a search for local excesses from resonant production of dijet pairs is performed. No significant excess of events beyond the Standard Model expectation is observed, and upper limits are set on the production cross-sections of new physics scenarios.
The average dijet invariant mass distributions in data, along with the fitted background estimates for 0.28 < $\alpha$ < 0.30.
Cross-section measurements of top-quark pair production where the hadronically decaying top quark has transverse momentum greater than $355$ GeV and the other top quark decays into $\ell \nu b$ are presented using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS experiment during proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The fiducial cross-section at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is measured to be $\sigma = 1.267 \pm 0.005 \pm 0.053$ pb, where the uncertainties reflect the limited number of data events and the systematic uncertainties, giving a total uncertainty of $4.2\%$. The cross-section is measured differentially as a function of variables characterising the $t\bar{t}$ system and additional radiation in the events. The results are compared with various Monte Carlo generators, including comparisons where the generators are reweighted to match a parton-level calculation at next-to-next-to-leading order. The reweighting improves the agreement between data and theory. The measured distribution of the top-quark transverse momentum is used to set limits on the Wilson coefficients of the dimension-six operators $O_{tG}$ and $O_{tq}^{(8)}$ in the effective field theory framework.
Relative differential cross-section as a function of $H_T^{t\bar{t}}$ at particle level in the boosted topology. The measured differential cross-section is compared with the prediction obtained with the Powheg+Pythia8 Monte Carlo generator.
A search for leptoquarks decaying into the $b\tau$ final state is performed using Run 2 proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector. The benchmark models considered in this search are vector leptoquarks with electric charge of 2/3e and scalar leptoquarks with an electric charge of 4/3e. No significant excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed, and 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the cross-section times branching fraction of leptoquarks decaying into $b\tau$. For the vector leptoquark production two models are considered: the Yang-Mills and Minimal coupling models. In the Yang-Mills (Minimal coupling) scenario, vector leptoquarks with a mass below 1.58 (1.35) TeV are excluded for a gauge coupling of 1.0 and below 2.05 (1.99) TeV for a gauge coupling of 2.5. In the case of scalar leptoquarks, masses below 1.28 TeV (1.53 TeV) are excluded for a Yukawa coupling of 1.0 (2.5). Finally, an interpretation of the results with minimal model dependence is performed for each of the signal region categories, and limits on the visible cross-section for beyond the Standard Model processes are provided.
Observed (solid line) and expected (dashed line) 95% CL upper limits for $\lambda$ = 2.5 on the cross-section of singly produced $\widetilde{S_{1}}$ signal hypotheses from the combination of the high b-jet $p_{T}$ category for the $\tau_\text{lep}\tau_\text{had}$ and $\tau_\text{had}\tau_\text{had}$ channels.
Measurements of differential cross sections are presented for inclusive isolated-photon production in $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV provided by the LHC and using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment. The cross sections are measured as functions of the photon transverse energy in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The photons are required to be isolated by means of a fixed-cone method with two different cone radii. The dependence of the inclusive-photon production on the photon isolation is investigated by measuring the fiducial cross sections as functions of the isolation-cone radius and the ratios of the differential cross sections with different radii in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. The results presented in this paper constitute an improvement with respect to those published by ATLAS earlier: the measurements are provided for different isolation radii and with a more granular segmentation in photon pseudorapidity that can be exploited in improving the determination of the proton parton distribution functions. These improvements provide a more in-depth test of the theoretical predictions. Next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from JETPHOX and SHERPA and next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from NNLOJET are compared to the measurements, using several parameterisations of the proton parton distribution functions. The measured cross sections are well described by the fixed-order QCD predictions within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties in most of the investigated phase-space region.
Predicted cross sections for inclusive isolated-photon production as a function of $E_{\rm T}^{\gamma}$ for $1.56<|\eta^{\gamma}|<1.81$ and isolation cone radius $0.2$ at NNLO QCD.
This Letter reports the observation of single top quarks produced together with a photon, which directly probes the electroweak coupling of the top quark. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Requiring a photon with transverse momentum larger than 20 GeV and within the detector acceptance, the fiducial cross section is measured to be 688 $\pm$ 23 (stat.) $^{+75}_{-71}$ (syst.) fb, to be compared with the standard model prediction of 515 $^{+36}_{-42}$ fb at next-to-leading order in QCD.
Distribution of the energy of the system formed by the highest-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ forward jet and the photon in the $\geq$1fj$\,$SR in data and for the sum of all processes expectations before the profile-likelihood fit. The "Total" column corresponds to the sum of the expected contributions from the signal and background processes. The uncertainty represents the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties in the signal and background predictions. The first and last bins include the underflow and overflow, respectively.
A search for the leptonic charge asymmetry ($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.
The most relevant systematic uncertainties ranked by their impact on the leptonic charge asymmetry ($A_c^{\ell}$) parameter at reconstructed level. The impact of the uncertainties is shown before and after the combined profile-likelihood fit to data in the signal and control regions. Pulls introduced by the fitting procedure are also shown. The entries shown in bold are the uncertainties of the freely floating background normalisations. ME stands for "matrix element", PS for "parton shower" and JER for "jet energy resolution". The gamma-uncertainties refer to the MC statistical uncertainties in a specific region and bin.
The most relevant systematic uncertainties ranked by their impact on the ttW Normalisation Factor ($\Delta \eta < 0$) parameter at reconstructed level. The impact of the uncertainties is shown before and after the combined profile-likelihood fit to data in the signal and control regions. Pulls introduced by the fitting procedure are also shown. ME stands for "matrix element", PS for "parton shower" and JER for "jet energy resolution". The gamma-uncertainties refer to the MC statistical uncertainties in a specific region and bin.
This paper presents a statistical combination of searches targeting final states with two top quarks and invisible particles, characterised by the presence of zero, one or two leptons, at least one jet originating from a $b$-quark and missing transverse momentum. The analyses are searches for phenomena beyond the Standard Model consistent with the direct production of dark matter in $pp$ collisions at the LHC, using 139 fb$^{-\text{1}}$ of data collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The results are interpreted in terms of simplified dark matter models with a spin-0 scalar or pseudoscalar mediator particle. In addition, the results are interpreted in terms of upper limits on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio, where the Higgs boson is produced according to the Standard Model in association with a pair of top quarks. For scalar (pseudoscalar) dark matter models, with all couplings set to unity, the statistical combination extends the mass range excluded by the best of the individual channels by 50 (25) GeV, excluding mediator masses up to 370 GeV. In addition, the statistical combination improves the expected coupling exclusion reach by 14% (24%), assuming a scalar (pseudoscalar) mediator mass of 10 GeV. An upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.38 (0.30$^{+\text{0.13}}_{-\text{0.09}}$) is observed (expected) at 95% confidence level.
Cutflow for the reference point DM+$tW$ $m(a, \chi) = (10, 1)$ GeV in signal region SRTX. The column labelled 'weighted' shows the event yield including all correction factors applied to simulation, and is normalised to 139 fb$^{-1}$. A notable exception concerns the 'weighted' numbers in the first and the second row, labelled 'Total' and 'Filtered', which correspond to $\mathcal{L}\cdot\sigma$ and $\mathcal{L}\cdot\sigma\cdot\epsilon$ expected, respectively. The 'Skim' selection requires the $p_{\text{T}}$ of the leading four jets to be above (80, 60, 40, 40) GeV, the missing transverse momentum $E_{\text{T}}^{\text{miss}} > 140$ GeV, the missing momentum significance $\mathcal{S} > 8$, $\Delta\phi_{\min}(\vec{p}_{\text{T,1-4}},\vec{p}_{\text{T}}^{\text{miss}}) > 0.4$ and a lepton veto. The 'Orthogonalisation' selection is defined in the main body. In total 100000 raw MC events were generated prior to the specified cuts, with the column 'Unweighted yield' collecting the numbers after each cut.
A search is presented for displaced production of Higgs bosons or $Z$ bosons, originating from the decay of a neutral long-lived particle (LLP) and reconstructed in the decay modes $H\rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ and $Z\rightarrow ee$. The analysis uses the full Run 2 data set of proton$-$proton collisions delivered by the LHC at an energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV between 2015 and 2018 and recorded by the ATLAS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Exploiting the capabilities of the ATLAS liquid argon calorimeter to precisely measure the arrival times and trajectories of electromagnetic objects, the analysis searches for the signature of pairs of photons or electrons which arise from a common displaced vertex and which arrive after some delay at the calorimeter. The results are interpreted in a gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking model with pair-produced higgsinos that decay to LLPs, and each LLP subsequently decays into either a Higgs boson or a $Z$ boson. The final state includes at least two particles that escape direct detection, giving rise to missing transverse momentum. No significant excess is observed above the background expectation. The results are used to set upper limits on the cross section for higgsino pair production, up to a $\tilde\chi^0_1$ mass of 369 (704) GeV for decays with 100% branching ratio of $\tilde\chi^0_1$ to Higgs ($Z$) bosons for a $\tilde\chi^0_1$ lifetime of 2 ns. A model-independent limit is also set on the production of pairs of photons or electrons with a significant delay in arrival at the calorimeter.
The 95% CL limits on $\sigma(pp \rightarrow \tilde\chi^0_1 \tilde\chi^0_1$) in fb as a function of $\tilde\chi^0_1$ branching ratio to the SM Higgs boson, where the assumed cross-section is for higgsino production, and $\mathcal{B}$($\tilde\chi^0_1$ $\rightarrow Z +\tilde{G}$) = 1 - $\mathcal{B}$($\tilde\chi^0_1$ $\rightarrow H + \tilde{G}$). Several signal hypotheses are overlaid that are labelled by the $\tilde\chi^0_1$ mass, all with a fixed $\tilde\chi^0_1$ lifetime of 2 ns.
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