We present the midrapidity charged pion invariant cross sections and the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production ($5<p_T<13$ GeV/$c$), together with the double-helicity asymmetries ($5<p_T<12$ GeV/$c$) in polarized $p$$+$$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 200$ GeV. The cross section measurements are consistent with perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics within large uncertainties in the calculation due to the choice of factorization, renormalization, and fragmentation scales. However, the theoretical calculation of the ratio of $\pi^-$-to-$\pi^+$ production when considering these scale uncertainties overestimates the measured value, suggesting further investigation of the uncertainties on the charge-separated pion fragmentation functions is needed. Due to cancellations of uncertainties in the charge ratio, direct inclusion of these ratio data in future parameterizations should improve constraints on the flavor dependence of quark fragmentation functions to pions. By measuring charge-separated pion asymmetries, one can gain sensitivity to the sign of $\Delta G$ through the opposite sign of the up and down quark helicity distributions in conjunction with preferential fragmentation of positive pions from up quarks and negative pions from down quarks. The double-helicity asymmetries presented are sensitive to the gluon helicity distribution over an $x$ range of $\sim$0.03--0.16.
Double-helicity asymmetries and statistical uncertainties for $\pi^+$ and $\pi^-$ hadrons. The primary systematic uncertainties, which are fully correlated between points, are $1.4\times10^{-3}$ from relative luminosity and a $^{+7.0\%}_{-7.7\%}$ scaling uncertainty from beam polarization.
A search is performed for the electroweak pair production of charginos and associated production of a chargino and neutralino, each of which decays through an $R$-parity-violating coupling into a lepton and a $W$, $Z$, or Higgs boson. The trilepton invariant-mass spectrum is constructed from events with three or more leptons, targeting chargino decays that include an electron or muon and a leptonically decaying $Z$ boson. The analyzed dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data produced by the Large Hadron Collider at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV and collected by the ATLAS experiment between 2015 and 2018. The data are found to be consistent with predictions from the Standard Model. The results are interpreted as limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model. Limits are also set on the production of charginos and neutralinos for a Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with an approximate $B$-$L$ symmetry. Charginos and neutralinos with masses between 100 GeV and 1100 GeV are excluded depending on the assumed decay branching fractions into a lepton (electron, muon, or $\tau$-lepton) plus a boson ($W$, $Z$, or Higgs).
$m^{asym}_{Z\ell}$ kinematic distribution in the signal regions showing the data and the post-fit background in sr3$\ell$. The fit uses all CR and SRs, and the distributions are shown inclusively in $m_{Z\ell}$. The full event selection for each of the corresponding regions is applied except for the variable shown, where the selection is indicated by a blue arrow. the first (last) bin includes underflow (overflow) events. The other category mostly consists of $tWZ$, $t\bar{t}W$, and $tZ$ processes. The hatched bands indicate the combined theoretical, experimental, and MC statistical uncertainties. The bottom panel shows the ratio between the data and the post-fit background prediction.
$m^{asym}_{Z\ell}$ kinematic distribution in the signal regions showing the data and the post-fit background in sr3$\ell$. The fit uses all CR and SRs, and the distributions are shown inclusively in $m_{Z\ell}$. The full event selection for each of the corresponding regions is applied except for the variable shown, where the selection is indicated by a blue arrow. the first (last) bin includes underflow (overflow) events. The other category mostly consists of $tWZ$, $t\bar{t}W$, and $tZ$ processes. The hatched bands indicate the combined theoretical, experimental, and MC statistical uncertainties. The bottom panel shows the ratio between the data and the post-fit background prediction.
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