A search for new top quark interactions is performed within the framework of an effective field theory using the associated production of either one or two top quarks with a Z boson in multilepton final states. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Five dimension-six operators modifying the electroweak interactions of the top quark are considered. Novel machine-learning techniques are used to enhance the sensitivity to effects arising from these operators. Distributions used for the signal extraction are parameterized in terms of Wilson coefficients describing the interaction strengths of the operators. All five Wilson coefficients are simultaneously fit to data and 95% confidence level intervals are computed. All results are consistent with the SM expectations.
The inclusive top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) production cross-section $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$ has been measured in proton$-$proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, using $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$ of data collected in 2015$-$16 by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Using events with an opposite-charge $e\mu$ pair and $b$-tagged jets, the cross-section is measured to be: \begin{equation}\nonumber \sigma_{t\bar{t}} = 826.4 \pm 3.6\,\mathrm{(stat)}\ \pm 11.5\,\mathrm{(syst)}\ \pm 15.7\,\mathrm{(lumi)}\ \pm 1.9\,\mathrm{(beam)}\,\mathrm{pb}, \end{equation} where the uncertainties reflect the limited size of the data sample, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity, and the LHC beam energy, giving a total uncertainty of 2.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. It is used to determine the top quark pole mass via the dependence of the predicted cross-section on $m_t^{\mathrm{pole}}$, giving $m_t^{\mathrm{pole}}=173.1^{+2.0}_{-2.1}$ GeV. It is also combined with measurements at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV to derive ratios and double ratios of $t\bar{t}$ and $Z$ cross-sections at different energies. The same event sample is used to measure absolute and normalised differential cross-sections as functions of single-lepton and dilepton kinematic variables, and the results compared with predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators.
A measurement of fiducial and differential cross-sections for $W^+W^-$ production in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$ is presented. Events with one electron and one muon are selected, corresponding to the decay of the diboson system as $WW\rightarrow e^{\pm}\nu\mu^{\mp}\nu$. To suppress top-quark background, events containing jets with a transverse momentum exceeding 35 GeV are not included in the measurement phase space. The fiducial cross-section, six differential distributions and the cross-section as a function of the jet-veto transverse momentum threshold are measured and compared with several theoretical predictions. Constraints on anomalous electroweak gauge boson self-interactions are also presented in the framework of a dimension-six effective field theory.
A search for new physics in events with two highly Lorentz-boosted Z bosons and large missing transverse momentum is presented. The analyzed proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$, were recorded at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search utilizes the substructure of jets with large radius to identify quark pairs from Z boson decays. Backgrounds from standard model processes are suppressed by requirements on the jet mass and the missing transverse momentum. No significant excess in the event yield is observed beyond the number of background events expected from the standard model. For a simplified supersymmetric model in which the Z bosons arise from the decay of gluinos, an exclusion limit of 1920 GeV on the gluino mass is set at 95% confidence level. This is the first search for beyond-standard-model production of pairs of boosted Z bosons plus large missing transverse momentum.
Inclusive and differential cross-sections for the production of top quarks in association with a photon are measured with proton$-$proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The data were collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC during Run 2 between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measurements are performed in a fiducial volume defined at parton level. Events with exactly one photon, one electron and one muon of opposite sign, and at least two jets, of which at least one is $b$-tagged, are selected. The fiducial cross-section is measured to be $39.6\,^{+2.7}_{-2.3}\,\textrm{fb}$. Differential cross-sections as functions of several observables are compared with state-of-the-art Monte Carlo simulations and next-to-leading-order theoretical calculations. These include cross-sections as functions of photon kinematic variables, angular variables related to the photon and the leptons, and angular separations between the two leptons in the event. All measurements are in agreement with the predictions from the Standard Model.
Inclusive and differential cross-sections for the production of a top-quark pair in association with a photon are measured with proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$, collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measurements are performed in single-lepton and dilepton final states in a fiducial volume. Events with exactly one photon, one or two leptons, a channel-dependent minimum number of jets, and at least one $b$-jet are selected. Neural network algorithms are used to separate the signal from the backgrounds. The fiducial cross-sections are measured to be 521 $\pm$ 9(stat.) $\pm$ 41(sys.) fb and 69 $\pm$ 3(stat.) $\pm$ 4(sys.) fb for the single-lepton and dilepton channels, respectively. The differential cross-sections are measured as a function of photon transverse momentum, photon absolute pseudorapidity, and angular distance between the photon and its closest lepton in both channels, as well as azimuthal opening angle and absolute pseudorapidity difference between the two leptons in the dilepton channel. All measurements are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.
One of the key challenges for nuclear physics today is to understand from first principles the effective interaction between hadrons with different quark content. First successes have been achieved using techniques that solve the dynamics of quarks and gluons on discrete space-time lattices. Experimentally, the dynamics of the strong interaction have been studied by scattering hadrons off each other. Such scattering experiments are difficult or impossible for unstable hadrons and so high-quality measurements exist only for hadrons containing up and down quarks. Here we demonstrate that measuring correlations in the momentum space between hadron pairs produced in ultrarelativistic proton-proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provides a precise method with which to obtain the missing information on the interaction dynamics between any pair of unstable hadrons. Specifically, we discuss the case of the interaction of baryons containing strange quarks (hyperons). We demonstrate how, using precision measurements of p-omega baryon correlations, the effect of the strong interaction for this hadron-hadron pair can be studied with precision similar to, and compared with, predictions from lattice calculations. The large number of hyperons identified in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, together with an accurate modelling of the small (approximately one femtometre) inter-particle distance and exact predictions for the correlation functions, enables a detailed determination of the short-range part of the nucleon-hyperon interaction.
Multi-particle cumulants and corresponding Fourier harmonics are measured for azimuthal angle distributions of charged particles in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 and 13 TeV and in $p$+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, and compared to the results obtained for low-multiplicity Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV. These measurements aim to assess the collective nature of particle production. The measurements of multi-particle cumulants confirm the evidence for collective phenomena in $p$+Pb and low-multiplicity Pb+Pb collisions. On the other hand, the $pp$ results for four-particle cumulants do not demonstrate collective behaviour, indicating that they may be biased by contributions from non-flow correlations. A comparison of multi-particle cumulants and derived Fourier harmonics across different collision systems is presented as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity. For a given multiplicity, the measured Fourier harmonics are largest in Pb+Pb, smaller in $p$+Pb and smallest in $pp$ collisions. The $pp$ results show no dependence on the collision energy, nor on the multiplicity.
Results are presented from a search for physics beyond the standard model in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV in channels with two Higgs bosons, each decaying via the process H $\to$$\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$, and large missing transverse momentum. The search uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search is motivated by models of supersymmetry that predict the production of neutralinos, the neutral partners of the electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons. The observed event yields in the signal regions are found to be consistent with the standard model background expectations. The results are interpreted using simplified models of supersymmetry. For the electroweak production of nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos, each of whose decay chains yields a neutralino ($\tilde{\chi}^0_1$) that in turn decays to a massless goldstino and a Higgs boson, $\tilde{\chi}^0_1$ masses in the range 175 to 1025 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. For the strong production of gluino pairs decaying via a slightly lighter $\tilde{\chi}^0_2$ to H and a light $\tilde{\chi}^0_1$, gluino masses below 2330 GeV are excluded.
Results on two-particle angular correlations for charged particles produced in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are presented. The data were taken with the CMS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 270 inverse nanobarns. The correlations are studied over a broad range of pseudorapidity (abs(eta) < 2.4) and over the full azimuth (phi) as a function of charged particle multiplicity and transverse momentum (pt). In high-multiplicity events, a long-range (abs(Delta eta) > 2.0), near-side (Delta phi approximately 0) structure emerges in the two-particle Delta eta-Delta phi correlation functions. The magnitude of the correlation exhibits a pronounced maximum in the range 1.0 < pt < 2.0 GeV/c and an approximately linear increase with the charged particle multiplicity, with an overall correlation strength similar to that found in earlier pp data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. The present measurement extends the study of near-side long-range correlations up to charged particle multiplicities of N[ch] approximately 180, a region so far unexplored in pp collisions. The observed long-range correlations are compared to those seen in pp, pPb, and PbPb collisions at lower collision energies.
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