The associated production of a Higgs boson and a top-quark pair is measured in events characterised by the presence of one or two electrons or muons. The Higgs boson decay into a $b$-quark pair is used. The analysed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$, were collected in proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider between 2015 and 2018 at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The measured signal strength, defined as the ratio of the measured signal yield to that predicted by the Standard Model, is $0.35^{+0.36}_{-0.34}$. This result is compatible with the Standard Model prediction and corresponds to an observed (expected) significance of 1.0 (2.7) standard deviations. The signal strength is also measured differentially in bins of the Higgs boson transverse momentum in the simplified template cross-section framework, including a bin for specially selected boosted Higgs bosons with transverse momentum above 300 GeV.

This paper presents a search for dark matter, $\chi$, using events with a single top quark and an energetic $W$ boson. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data collected with the ATLAS experiment at $\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV during LHC Run 2 (2015-2018), corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The search considers final states with zero or one charged lepton (electron or muon), at least one $b$-jet and large missing transverse momentum. In addition, a result from a previous search considering two-charged-lepton final states is included in the interpretation of the results. The data are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model predictions and the results are interpreted in terms of 95% confidence-level exclusion limits in the context of a class of dark matter models involving an extended two-Higgs-doublet sector together with a pseudoscalar mediator particle. The search is particularly sensitive to on-shell production of the charged Higgs boson state, $H^{\pm}$, arising from the two-Higgs-doublet mixing, and its semi-invisible decays via the mediator particle, $a$: $H^{\pm} \rightarrow W^\pm a (\rightarrow \chi\chi)$. Signal models with $H^{\pm}$ masses up to 1.5 TeV and $a$ masses up to 350 GeV are excluded assuming a tan$\beta$ value of 1. For masses of $a$ of 150 (250) GeV, tan$\beta$ values up to 2 are excluded for $H^{\pm}$ masses between 200 (400) GeV and 1.5 TeV. Signals with tan$\beta$ values between 20 and 30 are excluded for $H^{\pm}$ masses between 500 and 800 GeV.

A search is reported for excited $\tau$-leptons and leptoquarks in events with two hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons and two or more jets. The search uses proton-proton (pp) collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider in 2015-2018. The total integrated luminosity is 139 fb$^{-1}$. The excited $\tau$-lepton is assumed to be produced and to decay via a four-fermion contact interaction into an ordinary $\tau$-lepton and a quark-antiquark pair. The leptoquarks are assumed to be produced in pairs via the strong interaction, and each leptoquark is assumed to couple to a charm or lighter quark and a $\tau$-lepton. No excess over the background prediction is observed. Excited $\tau$-leptons with masses below 2.8 TeV are excluded at 95% CL in scenarios with the contact interaction scale $\Lambda$ set to 10 TeV. At the extreme limit of model validity where $\Lambda$ is set equal to the excited $\tau$-lepton mass, excited $\tau$-leptons with masses below 4.6 TeV are excluded. Leptoquarks with masses below 1.3 TeV are excluded at 95% CL if their branching ratio to a charm quark and a $\tau$-lepton equals 1. The analysis does not exploit flavour-tagging in the signal region.

The inclusive top-quark-pair production cross section $\sigma_{t\bar{t}}$ and its ratio to the $Z$-boson production cross section have been measured in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13.6$ TeV, using 29 fb${}^{-1}$ of data collected in 2022 with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Using events with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair and $b$-tagged jets, and assuming Standard Model decays, the top-quark-pair production cross section is measured to be $\sigma_{t\bar{t}} = 850 \pm 3\mathrm{(stat.)}\pm 18\mathrm{(syst.)}\pm 20\mathrm{(lumi.)}$ pb. The ratio of the $t\bar{t}$ and the $Z$-boson production cross sections is also measured, where the $Z$-boson contribution is determined for inclusive $e^+e^-$ and $\mu^+\mu^-$ events in a fiducial phase space. The relative uncertainty on the ratio is reduced compared to the $t\bar{t}$ cross section, thanks to the cancellation of several systematic uncertainties. The result for the ratio, $R_{t\bar{t}/Z} = 1.145 \pm 0.003\mathrm{(stat.)}\pm 0.021\mathrm{(syst.)}\pm 0.002\mathrm{(lumi.)}$ is consistent with the Standard Model prediction using the PDF4LHC21 PDF set.

A search is presented for flavour-changing neutral-current interactions involving the top quark, the Higgs boson and an up-type quark ($q=u,c$) with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis considers leptonic decays of the top quark along with Higgs boson decays into two $W$ bosons, two $Z$ bosons or a $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ pair. It focuses on final states containing either two leptons (electrons or muons) of the same charge or three leptons. The considered processes are $t\bar{t}$ and $Ht$ production. For the $t\bar{t}$ production, one top quark decays via $t\to Hq$. The proton-proton collision data set analysed amounts to 140 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. No significant excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed and upper limits are set on the $t\to Hq$ branching ratios at 95% confidence level, amounting to observed (expected) limits of $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)<2.8\,(3.0) \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)<3.3\,(3.8) \times 10^{-4}$. Combining this search with other searches for $tHq$ flavour-changing neutral-current interactions previously conducted by ATLAS, considering $H\to b\bar{b}$ and $H\to\gamma\gamma$ decays, as well as $H\to\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ decays with one or two hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons, yields observed (expected) upper limits on the branching ratios of $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)<2.6\,(1.8) \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)<3.4\,(2.3) \times 10^{-4}$.

A search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying $\tau$-lepton is presented. Two exclusive final states with either exactly one or at least two $\tau$-leptons are considered. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess is observed over the Standard Model expectation. At 95% confidence level, model-independent upper limits on the cross section are set and exclusion limits are provided for two signal scenarios: a simplified model of gluino pair production with $\tau$-rich cascade decays, and a model with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB). In the simplified model, gluino masses up to 2000 GeV are excluded for low values of the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), while LSP masses up to 1000 GeV are excluded for gluino masses around 1400 GeV. In the GMSB model, values of the supersymmetry-breaking scale are excluded below 110 TeV for all values of $\tan\beta$ in the range $2 \leq \tan\beta \leq 60$, and below 120 TeV for $\tan\beta>30$.

This paper describes a search for beyond the Standard Model decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new spin-0 particles subsequently decaying into $b$-quark pairs, $H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow (b\bar{b})(b\bar{b})$, using proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. This search focuses on the regime where the decay products are collimated and in the range $15 \leq m_a \leq 30$ GeV and is complementary to a previous search in the same final state targeting the regime where the decay products are well separated and in the range $20 \leq m_a \leq 60$ GeV. A novel strategy for the identification of the $a \rightarrow b\bar{b}$ decays is deployed to enhance the efficiency for topologies with small separation angles. The search is performed with 36 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected in 2015 and 2016 and sets upper limits on the production cross-section of $H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow (b\bar{b})(b\bar{b})$, where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a $Z$ boson.

A search for the electroweak production of charginos and sleptons decaying into final states with two electrons or muons is presented. The analysis is based on 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. Three $R$-parity-conserving scenarios where the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle are considered: the production of chargino pairs with decays via either $W$ bosons or sleptons, and the direct production of slepton pairs. The analysis is optimised for the first of these scenarios, but the results are also interpreted in the others. No significant deviations from the Standard Model expectations are observed and limits at 95 % confidence level are set on the masses of relevant supersymmetric particles in each of the scenarios. For a massless lightest neutralino, masses up to 420 GeV are excluded for the production of the lightest-chargino pairs assuming $W$-boson-mediated decays and up to 1 TeV for slepton-mediated decays, whereas for slepton-pair production masses up to 700 GeV are excluded assuming three generations of mass-degenerate sleptons.

This search, a type not previously performed at ATLAS, uses a comparison of the production cross sections for $e^+ \mu^-$ and $e^- \mu^+$ pairs to constrain physics processes beyond the Standard Model. It uses $139 \text{fb}^{-1}$ of proton$-$proton collision data recorded at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV at the LHC. Targeting sources of new physics which prefer final states containing $e^{+}\mu^{-}$ to $e^{-}\mu^{+}$, the search contains two broad signal regions which are used to provide model-independent constraints on the ratio of cross sections at the 2% level. The search also has two special selections targeting supersymmetric models and leptoquark signatures. Observations using one of these selections are able to exclude, at 95% confidence level, singly produced smuons with masses up to 640 GeV in a model in which the only other light sparticle is a neutralino when the $R$-parity-violating coupling $\lambda'_{231}$ is close to unity. Observations using the other selection exclude scalar leptoquarks with masses below 1880 GeV when $g_{\text{1R}}^{eu}=g_{\text{1R}}^{\mu c}=1$, at 95% confidence level. The limit on the coupling reduces to $g_{\text{1R}}^{eu}=g_{\text{1R}}^{\mu c}=0.46$ for a mass of 1420 GeV.

Searches for new phenomena inspired by supersymmetry in final states containing an $e^+e^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-$ pair, jets, and missing transverse momentum are presented. These searches make use of proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 139 $\text{fb}^{-1}$, collected during 2015-2018 at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13 $TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Two searches target the pair production of charginos and neutralinos. One uses the recursive-jigsaw reconstruction technique to follow up on excesses observed in 36.1 $\text{fb}^{-1}$ of data, and the other uses conventional event variables. The third search targets pair production of coloured supersymmetric particles (squarks or gluinos) decaying through the next-to-lightest neutralino $(\tilde\chi_2^0)$ via a slepton $(\tilde\ell)$ or $Z$ boson into $\ell^+\ell^-\tilde\chi_1^0$, resulting in a kinematic endpoint or peak in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectations. Results are interpreted using simplified models and exclude masses up to 900 GeV for electroweakinos, 1550 GeV for squarks, and 2250 GeV for gluinos.