Several models of physics beyond the Standard Model predict the existence of dark photons, light neutral particles decaying into collimated leptons or light hadrons. This paper presents a search for long-lived dark photons produced from the decay of a Higgs boson or a heavy scalar boson and decaying into displaced collimated Standard Model fermions. The search uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV recorded in 2015-2016 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed number of events is consistent with the expected background, and limits on the production cross section times branching fraction as a function of the proper decay length of the dark photon are reported. A cross section times branching fraction above 4 pb is excluded for a Higgs boson decaying into two dark photons for dark-photon decay lengths between 1.5 mm and 307 mm.

The production of a prompt photon in association with a $Z$ boson is studied in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC from 2015 to 2018. The production cross-section for the process $pp \rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-\gamma+X$ ($\ell = e, \mu$) is measured within a fiducial phase-space region defined by kinematic requirements on the photon and the leptons, and by isolation requirements on the photon. An experimental precision of 2.9% is achieved for the fiducial cross-section. Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of each of six kinematic variables characterising the $\ell^+\ell^-\gamma$ system. The data are compared with theoretical predictions based on next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations. The impact of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections is also considered.

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 search is presented for pair-production of long-lived neutral particles using 33 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data, collected during 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This search focuses on a topology in which one long-lived particle decays in the ATLAS inner detector and the other decays in the muon spectrometer. Special techniques are employed to reconstruct the displaced tracks and vertices in the inner detector and in the muon spectrometer. One event is observed that passes the full event selection, which is consistent with the estimated background. Limits are placed on scalar boson propagators with masses from 125 GeV to 1000 GeV decaying into pairs of long-lived hidden-sector scalars with masses from 8 GeV to 400 GeV. The limits placed on several low-mass scalars extend previous exclusion limits in the range of proper lifetimes $c \tau$ from 5 cm to 1 m.

A measurement of $W^\pm$ boson production in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV is reported using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $0.49\;\mathrm{nb^{-1}}$. The $W^\pm$ bosons are reconstructed in the electron or muon leptonic decay channels. Production yields of leptonically decaying $W^\pm$ bosons, normalised by the total number of minimum-bias events and the nuclear thickness function, are measured within a fiducial region defined by the detector acceptance and the main kinematic requirements. These normalised yields are measured separately for $W^+$ and $W^-$ bosons, and are presented as a function of the absolute value of pseudorapidity of the charged lepton and of the collision centrality. The lepton charge asymmetry is also measured as a function of the absolute value of lepton pseudorapidity. In addition, nuclear modification factors are calculated using the $W^\pm$ boson production cross-sections measured in $pp$ collisions. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-leading-order calculations with CT14 parton distribution functions as well as with predictions obtained with the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions. No dependence of normalised production yields on centrality and a good agreement with predictions are observed for mid-central and central collisions. For peripheral collisions, the data agree with predictions within 1.7 (0.9) standard deviations for $W^-$ ($W^+$) bosons.

Jet substructure observables have significantly extended the search program for physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider. The state-of-the-art tools have been motivated by theoretical calculations, but there has never been a direct comparison between data and calculations of jet substructure observables that are accurate beyond leading-logarithm approximation. Such observables are significant not only for probing the collinear regime of QCD that is largely unexplored at a hadron collider, but also for improving the understanding of jet substructure properties that are used in many studies at the Large Hadron Collider. This Letter documents a measurement of the first jet substructure quantity at a hadron collider to be calculated at next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm accuracy. The normalized, differential cross-section is measured as a function of log$_{10}\rho^2$, where $\rho$ is the ratio of the soft-drop mass to the ungroomed jet transverse momentum. This quantity is measured in dijet events from 32.9 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector. The data are unfolded to correct for detector effects and compared to precise QCD calculations and leading-logarithm particle-level Monte Carlo simulations.

A search for the production of three massive vector bosons in proton--proton collisions is performed using data at $\sqrt{s}=13\,TeV$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in the years 2015--2017, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $79.8\,\text{fb}^{-1}$. Events with two same-sign leptons $\ell$ (electrons or muons) and at least two reconstructed jets are selected to search for $WWW\to\ell\nu\ell\nu qq$. Events with three leptons without any same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pairs are used to search for $WWW\to\ell\nu\ell\nu\ell\nu$, while events with three leptons and at least one same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pair and one or more reconstructed jets are used to search for $WWZ\to\ell\nu qq \ell\ell$. Finally, events with four leptons are analysed to search for $WWZ\to\ell\nu\ell\nu\ell\ell$ and $WZZ\to qq \ell\ell\ell\ell$. Evidence for the joint production of three massive vector bosons is observed with a significance of 4.0 standard deviations, where the expectation is 3.1 standard deviations.

A search for excited electrons produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV via a contact interaction $q\bar{q} \to ee^*$ is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Decays of the excited electron via a contact interaction into an electron and a pair of quarks ($eq\bar{q}$) are targeted in final states with two electrons and two hadronic jets, and decays via a gauge interaction into a neutrino and a $W$ boson ($\nu W$) are probed in final states with an electron, missing transverse momentum, and a large-radius jet consistent with a hadronically decaying $W$ boson. No significant excess is observed over the expected backgrounds. Upper limits are calculated for the $pp \to ee^* \to eeq\bar{q}$ and $pp \to ee^* \to e\nu W$ production cross sections as a function of the excited electron mass $m_{e^*}$ at 95% confidence level. The limits are translated into lower bounds on the compositeness scale parameter $\Lambda$ of the model as a function of $m_{e^*}$. For $m_{e^*} < 0.5$ TeV, the lower bound for $\Lambda$ is 11 TeV. In the special case of $m_{e^*} = \Lambda$, the values of $m_{e^*} < 4.8$ TeV are excluded. The presented limits on $\Lambda$ are more stringent than those obtained in previous searches.

A search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production, as predicted by the Standard Model, is presented, where one of the Higgs bosons decays via the $H\rightarrow bb$ channel and the other via one of the $H \rightarrow WW^*/ZZ^*/\tau\tau$ channels. The analysis selection requires events to have at least two $b$-tagged jets and exactly two leptons (electrons or muons) with opposite electric charge in the final state. Candidate events consistent with Higgs boson pair production are selected using a multi-class neural network discriminant. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. An observed (expected) upper limit of 1.2 ($0.9^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$) pb is set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section at 95% confidence level, which is equivalent to 40 ($29^{+14}_{-9}$) times the value predicted in the Standard Model.

Measurements of four-lepton differential and integrated fiducial cross-sections in events with two same-flavour, opposite-charge electron or muon pairs are presented. The data correspond to 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV proton-proton collisions, collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (2015-2018). The final state has contributions from a number of interesting Standard Model processes that dominate in different four-lepton invariant mass regions, including single $Z$ boson production, Higgs boson production and on-shell $ZZ$ production, with a complex mix of interference terms, and possible contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. The differential cross-sections include the four-lepton invariant mass inclusively, in slices of other kinematic variables, and in different lepton flavour categories. Also measured are dilepton invariant masses, transverse momenta, and angular correlation variables, in four regions of four-lepton invariant mass, each dominated by different processes. The measurements are corrected for detector effects and are compared with state-of-the-art Standard Model calculations, which are found to be consistent with the data. The $Z\rightarrow 4\ell$ branching fraction is extracted, giving a value of $\left(4.41 \pm 0.30\right) \times 10^{-6}$. Constraints on effective field theory parameters and a model based on a spontaneously broken $B-L$ gauge symmetry are also evaluated. Further reinterpretations can be performed with the provided information.