A search for new heavy particles manifested as resonances in two-jet final states is presented. The data were produced in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 315 nb^-1 collected by the ATLAS detector. No resonances were observed. Upper limits were set on the product of cross section and signal acceptance for excited-quark (q*) production as a function of q* mass. These exclude at the 95% CL the q* mass interval 0.30 < mq* < 1.26 TeV, extending the reach of previous experiments.
First measurements of the W -> lnu and Z/gamma* -> ll (l = e, mu) production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The results are based on 2250 W -> lnu and 179 Z/gamma* -> ll candidate events selected from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 320 nb-1. The measured total W and Z/gamma*-boson production cross sections times the respective leptonic branching ratios for the combined electron and muon channels are $\stotW$ * BR(W -> lnu) = 9.96 +- 0.23(stat) +- 0.50(syst) +- 1.10(lumi) nb and $\stotZg$ * BR(Z/gamma* -> ll) = 0.82 +- 0.06(stat) +- 0.05(syst) +- 0.09(lumi) nb (within the invariant mass window 66 < m_ll < 116 GeV). The W/Z cross-section ratio is measured to be 11.7 +- 0.9(stat) +- 0.4(syst). In addition, measurements of the W+ and W- production cross sections and of the lepton charge asymmetry are reported. Theoretical predictions based on NNLO QCD calculations are found to agree with the measurements.
Using 1.8 fb-1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, we present measurements of the production cross sections of Upsilon(1S,2S,3S) mesons. Upsilon mesons are reconstructed using the di-muon decay mode. Total production cross sections for p_T<70 GeV and in the rapidity interval |Upsilon|<2.25 are measured to be 8.01+-0.02+-0.36+-0.31 nb, 2.05+-0.01+-0.12+-0.08 nb, 0.92+-0.01+-0.07+-0.04 nb respectively, with uncertainties separated into statistical, systematic, and luminosity measurement effects. In addition, differential cross section times di-muon branching fractions for Upsilon(1S), Upsilon(2S), and Upsilon(3S) as a function of Upsilon transverse momentum p_T and rapidity are presented. These cross sections are obtained assuming unpolarized production. If the production polarization is fully transverse or longitudinal with no azimuthal dependence in the helicity frame the cross section may vary by approximately +-20%. If a non-trivial azimuthal dependence is considered, integrated cross sections may be significantly enhanced by a factor of two or more. We compare our results to several theoretical models of Upsilon meson production, finding that none provide an accurate description of our data over the full range of Upsilon transverse momenta accessible with this dataset.
This Letter reports the observation of $WZ\gamma$ production and a measurement of its cross-section using 140.1 $\pm$ 1.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The $WZ\gamma$ production cross-section, with both the $W$ and $Z$ bosons decaying leptonically, $pp \rightarrow WZ\gamma \rightarrow {\ell'}^{\pm}\nu\ell^{+}\ell^{-}\gamma$ ($\ell^{(')} = e, \mu$), is measured in a fiducial phase-space region defined such that the leptons and the photon have high transverse momentum and the photon is isolated. The cross-section is found to be 2.01 $\pm$ 0.30 (stat.) $\pm$ 0.16 (syst) fb. The corresponding Standard Model predicted cross-section calculated at next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics and at leading order in the electroweak coupling constant is 1.50 $\pm$ 0.06 fb. The observed significance of the $WZ\gamma$ signal is 6.3$\sigma$, compared with an expected significance of 5.0$\sigma$.
Cross-sections for the production of a $Z$ boson in association with two photons are measured in proton$-$proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the LHC. The measurements use the electron and muon decay channels of the $Z$ boson, and a fiducial phase-space region where the photons are not radiated from the leptons. The integrated $Z(\rightarrow\ell\ell)\gamma\gamma$ cross-section is measured with a precision of 12% and differential cross-sections are measured as a function of six kinematic variables of the $Z\gamma\gamma$ system. The data are compared with predictions from MC event generators which are accurate to up to next-to-leading order in QCD. The cross-section measurements are used to set limits on the coupling strengths of dimension-8 operators in the framework of an effective field theory.
The exclusive production of pion pairs in the process $pp\to pp\pi^+\pi^-$ has been measured at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, using 80 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of low-luminosity data. The pion pairs were detected in the ATLAS central detector while outgoing protons were measured in the forward ATLAS ALFA detector system. This represents the first use of proton tagging to measure an exclusive hadronic final state at the LHC. A cross-section measurement is performed in two kinematic regions defined by the proton momenta, the pion rapidities and transverse momenta, and the pion-pion invariant mass. Cross section values of $4.8 \pm 1.0 \text{(stat.)} + {}^{+0.3}_{-0.2} \text{(syst.)}\mu$b and $9 \pm 6 \text{(stat.)} + {}^{+2}_{-2}\text{(syst.)}\mu$b are obtained in the two regions; they are compared with theoretical models and provide a demonstration of the feasibility of measurements of this type.
The prompt and non-prompt production cross-sections for the chi_c1 and chi_c2 charmonium states are measured in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.5 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity. The chi_c states are reconstructed through the radiative decay chi_c -> J/psi gamma (with J/psi -> mu+mu-) where photons are reconstructed from gamma -> e+e- conversions. The production rate of the chi_c2 state relative to the chi_c1 state is measured for prompt and non-prompt chi_c as a function of J/psi transverse momentum. The prompt chi_c cross-sections are combined with existing measurements of prompt J/psi production to derive the fraction of prompt J/psi produced in feed-down from chi_c decays. The fractions of chi_c1 and chi_c2 produced in b-hadron decays are also measured.
This Letter presents a search for magnetic monopoles with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider using an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb^-1 of pp collisions recorded at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s)=7 TeV. No event is found in the signal region, leading to an upper limit on the production cross section at 95% confidence level of 1.6/epsilon fb for Dirac magnetic monopoles with the minimum unit magnetic charge and with mass between 200 GeV and 1500 GeV, where epsilon is the monopole reconstruction efficiency. The efficiency epsilon is high and uniform in the fiducial region given by pseudorapidity |eta|<1.37 and transverse kinetic energy 600-700<E^kin sin(theta)<1400 GeV. The minimum value of 700 GeV is for monopoles of mass 200 GeV, whereas the minimum value of 600 GeV is applicable for higher mass monopoles. Therefore, the upper limit on the production cross section at 95% confidence level is 2 fb in this fiducial region. Assuming the kinematic distributions from Drell-Yan pair production of spin-1/2 Dirac magnetic monopoles, the efficiency is in the range 1%-10%, leading to an upper limit on the cross section at 95% confidence level that varies from 145 fb to 16 fb for monopoles with mass between 200 GeV and 1200 GeV. This limit is weaker than the fiducial limit because most of these monopoles lie outside the fiducial region.
A search is presented for photonic signatures motivated by generalised models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. This search makes use of $20.3{\rm fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, and explores models dominated by both strong and electroweak production of supersymmetric partner states. Four experimental signatures incorporating an isolated photon and significant missing transverse momentum are explored. These signatures include events with an additional photon, lepton, $b$-quark jet, or jet activity not associated with any specific underlying quark flavor. No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model prediction and model-dependent 95% confidence-level exclusion limits are set.
The four-lepton ($4\ell$, $\ell = e, \mu$) production cross section is measured in the mass range from 80 to 1000 GeV using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The $4\ell$ events are produced in the decays of resonant $Z$ and Higgs bosons and the non-resonant $ZZ$ continuum originating from $q\bar q$, $gg$, and $qg$ initial states. A total of 476 signal candidate events are observed with a background expectation of $26.2 \pm 3.6$ events, enabling the measurement of the integrated cross section and the differential cross section as a function of the invariant mass and transverse momentum of the four-lepton system. In the mass range above $180$ GeV, assuming the theoretical constraint on the $q\bar q$ production cross section calculated with perturbative NNLO QCD and NLO electroweak corrections, the signal strength of the gluon-fusion component relative to its leading-order prediction is determined to be $\mu_{gg}=2.4 \pm 1.0 (stat.) \pm 0.5 (syst.)\pm 0.8 (theory)$.