This paper presents a study of the production of $WW$ or $WZ$ boson pairs, with one $W$ boson decaying to $e\nu$ or $\mu\nu$ and one $W$ or $Z$ boson decaying hadronically. The analysis uses 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV $pp$ collision data, collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Cross-sections for $WW/WZ$ production are measured in high-$p_{T}$ fiducial regions defined close to the experimental event selection. The cross-section is measured for the case where the hadronically decaying boson is reconstructed as two resolved jets, and the case where it is reconstructed as a single jet. The transverse momentum distribution of the hadronically decaying boson is used to search for new physics. Observations are consistent with the Standard Model predictions, and $95\%$ confidence intervals are calculated for parameters describing anomalous triple gauge-boson couplings.
A search is conducted for new resonances decaying into a $W$ or $Z$ boson and a 125 GeV Higgs boson in the $\nu\bar{\nu}b\bar{b}$, $\ell^{\pm}{\nu}b\bar{b}$, and $\ell^+\ell^-b\bar{b}$ final states, where $\ell ^{\pm}= e^{\pm}$ or $\mu^{\pm}$, in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt s = 13$ TeV. The data used correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider during the 2015 and 2016 data-taking periods. The search is conducted by examining the reconstructed invariant or transverse mass distributions of $Wh$ and $Zh$ candidates for evidence of a localised excess in the mass range of 220 GeV up to 5 TeV. No significant excess is observed and the results are interpreted in terms of constraints on the production cross-section times branching fraction of heavy $W^\prime$ and $Z^\prime$ resonances in heavy-vector-triplet models and the CP-odd scalar boson $A$ in two-Higgs-doublet models. Upper limits are placed at the 95 % confidence level and range between $9.0\times 10^{-4}$ pb and $8.1\times 10^{-1}$ pb depending on the model and mass of the resonance.
A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vector-like $B$ quarks, primarily targeting $B$ quark decays into a $W$ boson and a top quark. The search is based on $36.1$ $fb^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum, and multiple jets, of which at least one is $b$-tagged. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. The 95% confidence level lower limit on the $B$ mass is 1350 GeV assuming a 100% branching ratio to $Wt$. In the SU(2) singlet scenario, the lower mass limit is 1170 GeV. This search is also sensitive to a heavy vector-like $B$ quark decaying into other final states ($Zb$ and $Hb$) and thus mass limits on $B$ production are set as a function of the decay branching ratios. The 100% branching ratio limits are found to be also applicable to heavy vector-like $X$ production, with charge $+$5/3, that decay into $Wt$.
A measurement of the $ZZ$ production in the $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ channels $(\ell = e, \mu)$ in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2012 is presented. The fiducial cross sections for $ZZ\to\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $ZZ\to \ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ are measured in selected phase-space regions. The total cross section for $ZZ$ events produced with both $Z$ bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV is measured from the combination of the two channels to be $7.3\pm0.4\textrm{(stat)}\pm0.3\textrm{(syst)}\pm0.2\textrm{(lumi)}$ pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of $6.6^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ pb. The differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. The differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading $Z$ boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in $ZZ$ production.
A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vector-like $T$ and $B$ quarks, primarily targeting the $T$ quark decays to a $W$ boson and a $b$-quark. The search is based on $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, including at least one $b$-tagged jet and a large-radius jet identified as originating from the hadronic decay of a high-momentum $W$ boson. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed in the reconstructed $T$ mass distribution. The observed 95% confidence level lower limit on the $T$ mass are 1350 GeV assuming 100% branching ratio to $Wb$. In the SU(2) singlet scenario, the lower mass limit is 1170 GeV. This search is also sensitive to a heavy vector-like $B$ quark decaying to $Wt$ and other final states. The results are thus reinterpreted to provide a 95% confidence level lower limit on the $B$ quark mass at 1250 GeV assuming 100% branching ratio to $Wt$; in the SU(2) singlet scenario, the limit is 1080 GeV. Mass limits on both $T$ and $B$ production are also set as a function of the decay branching ratios. The 100% branching ratio limits are found to be applicable to heavy vector-like $Y$ and $X$ production that decay to $Wb$ and $Wt$, respectively.
Several extensions of the Standard Model predict the production of dark matter particles at the LHC. An uncharted signature of dark matter particles produced in association with $VV=W^\pm W^\mp$ or $ZZ$ pairs from a decay of a dark Higgs boson $s$ is searched for using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The $s\to V(q\bar q)V(q\bar q)$ decays are reconstructed with a novel technique aimed at resolving the dense topology from boosted $VV$ pairs using jets in the calorimeter and tracking information. Dark Higgs scenarios with $m_s > 160$ GeV are excluded.
A search for a charged Higgs boson, $H^{\pm}$, produced in top-quark decays, $t \rightarrow H^{\pm}b$, is presented. The search targets $H^{\pm}$ decays into a bottom and a charm quark, $H^{\pm} \rightarrow cb$. The analysis focuses on a selection enriched in top-quark pair production, where one top quark decays into a leptonically decaying $W$ boson and a bottom quark, and the other top quark decays into a charged Higgs boson and a bottom quark. This topology leads to a lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets containing $b$-hadrons, and deploys a neural network classifier that uses the kinematic differences between the signal and the background. The search uses a dataset of proton-proton collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV between 2015 and 2018 with the ATLAS detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. Observed (expected) 95% confidence-level upper limits between 0.15% (0.09%) and 0.42% (0.25%) are derived for the product of branching fractions $\mathscr{B}(t\rightarrow H^{\pm}b) \times \mathscr{B}(H^{\pm}\rightarrow cb)$ for charged Higgs boson masses between 60 and 160 GeV, assuming the SM production of the top-quark pairs.
We present a measurement of the $W$-boson-pair production cross section in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy and the first measurement of the differential cross section as a function of jet multiplicity and leading-jet energy. The $W^{+}W^{-}$ cross section is measured in the final state comprising two charged leptons and neutrinos, where either charged lepton can be an electron or a muon. Using data collected by the CDF experiment corresponding to $9.7~\rm{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, a total of $3027$ collision events consistent with $W^{+}W^{-}$ production are observed with an estimated background contribution of $1790\pm190$ events. The measured total cross section is $\sigma(p\bar{p} \rightarrow W^{+}W^{-}) = 14.0 \pm 0.6~(\rm{stat})^{+1.2}_{-1.0}~(\rm{syst})\pm0.8~(\rm{lumi})$ pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.
Tau-pair production in the process e+e- -> e+e-tau+tau- was studied using data collected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 during the years 1997 - 2000. The corresponding integrated luminosity is 650 pb^{-1}. The values of the cross-section obtained are found to be in agreement with QED predictions. Limits on the anomalous magnetic and electric dipole moments of the tau lepton are deduced.
We present measurements of the differential cross section $d\sigma/dp_{T}^{\gamma}$ for the associated production of a $c$-quark jet and an isolated photon with rapidity $|y^{\gamma}|< 1.0$ and transverse momentum $30 < p_{T}^{\gamma} < 300$ GeV. The $c$-quark jets are required to have $|y^{jet}| < 1.5$ and $p_{T}^{jet} >15$ GeV. The ratio of differential cross sections for photon+ c and photon+ b production as a function of $p_{T}^{\gamma}$ is also presented. The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ Collider at $\sqrt{s}=$1.96 TeV. The obtained results are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using various parton distribution functions, to predictions based on the $k_{T}$-factorization approach, and to predictions from the Sherpa and Pythia Monte Carlo event generators.