The J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-$ decay has been observed with a statistical significance in excess of five standard deviations. The analysis is based on an event sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 33.6 fb${-1}$. Normalizing to the J/$\psi$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-$ decay mode leads to a branching fraction [10.1$^{+3.3}_{-2.7}$ (stat) $\pm$ 0.4 (syst) ]$\times$ 10$^{-7}$, a value that is consistent with the standard model prediction.

The production of single top quarks and top antiquarks via the $t$-channel exchange of a virtual $W$ boson is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC using $140\,\mathrm{fb^{-1}}$ of ATLAS data. The total cross-sections are determined to be $\sigma(tq)=137^{+8}_{-8}\,\mathrm{pb}$ and $\sigma(\bar{t}q)=84^{+6}_{-5}\,\mathrm{pb}$ for top-quark and top-antiquark production, respectively. The combined cross-section is found to be $\sigma(tq+\bar{t}q)=221^{+13}_{-13}\,\mathrm{pb}$ and the cross-section ratio is $R_{t}=\sigma(tq)/\sigma(\bar{t}q)=1.636^{+0.036}_{-0.034}$. The predictions at next-to-next-to-leading-order in quantum chromodynamics are in good agreement with these measurements. The predicted value of $R_{t}$ using different sets of parton distribution functions is compared with the measured value, demonstrating the potential to further constrain the functions when using this result in global fits. The measured cross-sections are interpreted in an effective field theory approach, setting limits at the 95% confidence level on the strength of a four-quark operator and an operator coupling the third quark generation to the Higgs boson doublet: $-0.37 < C_{Qq}^{3,1}/\Lambda^2 < 0.06$ and $-0.87 < C_{\phi Q}^{3}/\Lambda^2 < 1.42$. The constraint $|V_{tb}|>0.95$ at the 95% confidence level is derived from the measured value of $\sigma(tq+\bar{t}q)$. In a more general approach, pairs of CKM matrix elements involving top quarks are simultaneously constrained, leading to confidence contours in the corresponding two-dimensional parameter spaces.

A search is described for the production of a pair of bottom-type vector-like quarks (B VLQs) with mass greater than 1000 GeV. Each B VLQ decays into a b quark and a Higgs boson, a b quark and a Z boson, or a t quark and a W boson. This analysis considers both fully hadronic final states and those containing a charged lepton pair from a Z boson decay. The products of the H $to$ bb boson decay and of the hadronic Z or W boson decays can be resolved as two distinct jets or merged into a single jet, so the final states are classified by the number of reconstructed jets. The analysis uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC from 2016 to 2018. No excess over the expected background is observed. Lower limits are set on the B VLQ mass at 95% confidence level. These depend on the B VLQ branching fractions and are 1570 and 1540 GeV for 100% B $\to$ bH and 100% B $\to$ bZ, respectively. In most cases, the mass limits obtained exceed previous limits by at least 100 GeV.

Higgsinos with masses near the electroweak scale can solve the hierarchy problem and provide a dark matter candidate, while detecting them at the LHC remains challenging if their mass-splitting is $\mathcal{O}$(1 GeV). This Letter presents a novel search for nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos in events with an energetic jet, missing transverse momentum, and a low-momentum track with a significant transverse impact parameter using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment. For the first time since LEP, a range of mass-splittings between the lightest charged and neutral higgsinos from 0.3 GeV to 0.9 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, with a maximum reach of approximately 170 GeV in the higgsino mass.

A search for the central exclusive production of top quark-antiquark pairs ($\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$) is performed for the first time using proton-tagged events in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 29.4 fb$^{-1}$. The $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ decay products are reconstructed using the central CMS detector, while forward protons are measured in the CMS-TOTEM precision proton spectrometer. An observed (expected) upper bound on the production cross section of 0.59 (1.14) pb is set at 95% confidence level, for collisions of protons with fractional momentum losses between 2 and 20%.

This letter presents a search for narrow, high-mass resonances in the $Z\gamma$ final state with the $Z$ boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons. The $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collision data were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and have an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The data are found to be in agreement with the Standard Model background expectation. Upper limits are set on the resonance production cross section times the decay branching ratio into $Z\gamma$. For spin-0 resonances produced via gluon-gluon fusion, the observed limits at 95% confidence level vary between 65.5 fb and 0.6 fb, while for spin-2 resonances produced via gluon-gluon fusion (or quark-antiquark initial states) limits vary between 77.4 (76.1) fb and 0.6 (0.5) fb, for the mass range from 220 GeV to 3400 GeV.

A search is presented for a third-generation leptoquark (LQ) coupled exclusively to a $\tau$ lepton and a b quark. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with $\tau$ leptons and a varying number of jets originating from b quarks are considered, targeting the single and pair production of LQs, as well as nonresonant $t$-channel LQ exchange. An excess is observed in the data with respect to the background expectation in the combined analysis of all search regions. For a benchmark LQ mass of 2 TeV and an LQ-b-$\tau$ coupling strength of 2.5, the excess reaches a local significance of up to 2.8 standard deviations. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the LQ production cross section in the LQ mass range 0.5-2.3 TeV, and up to 3 TeV for $t$-channel LQ exchange. Leptoquarks are excluded below masses of 1.22-1.88 TeV for different LQ models and varying coupling strengths up to 2.5. The study of nonresonant $\tau\tau$ production through $t$-channel LQ exchange allows lower limits on the LQ mass of up to 2.3 TeV to be obtained.

The strange quark content of the proton is probed through the measurement of the production cross section for a W boson and a charm (c) quark in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The W bosons are identified through their leptonic decays to an electron or a muon, and a neutrino. Charm jets are tagged using the presence of a muon or a secondary vertex inside the jet. The W+c production cross section and the cross section ratio $R^\pm_\text{c}$ = $\sigma$(W$^+$+$\bar{\text{c}}$) / $\sigma$(W$^-$+$\text{c}$) are measured inclusively and differentially as functions of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the lepton originating from the W boson decay. The precision of the measurements is improved with respect to previous studies, reaching 1% in $R^\pm_\text{c}$. The precision of the measurements is improved with respect to previous studies, reaching 1% in $R^\pm_\text{c}$ = 0.950 $\pm$ 0.005 (stat) $\pm$ 0.010 (syst). The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions up to next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.

A search is presented for a heavy resonance $Y$ decaying into a Standard Model Higgs boson $H$ and a new particle $X$ in a fully hadronic final state. The full Large Hadron Collider Run 2 dataset of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018 is used, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The search targets the high $Y$-mass region, where the $H$ and $X$ have a significant Lorentz boost in the laboratory frame. A novel signal region is implemented using anomaly detection, where events are selected solely because of their incompatibility with a learned background-only model. It is defined using a jet-level tagger for signal-model-independent selection of the boosted $X$ particle, representing the first application of fully unsupervised machine learning to an ATLAS analysis. Two additional signal regions are implemented to target a benchmark $X$ decay into two quarks, covering topologies where the $X$ is reconstructed as either a single large-radius jet or two small-radius jets. The analysis selects Higgs boson decays into $b\bar{b}$, and a dedicated neural-network-based tagger provides sensitivity to the boosted heavy-flavor topology. No significant excess of data over the expected background is observed, and the results are presented as upper limits on the production cross section $\sigma(pp \rightarrow Y \rightarrow XH \rightarrow q\bar{q}b\bar{b}$) for signals with $m_Y$ between 1.5 and 6 TeV and $m_X$ between 65 and 3000 GeV.

A search for Majorana neutrinos in same-sign $WW$ scattering events is presented. The analysis uses $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$ recorded during 2015-2018 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis targets final states including exactly two same-sign muons and at least two hadronic jets well separated in rapidity. The modelling of the main backgrounds, from Standard Model same-sign $WW$ scattering and $WZ$ production, is constrained with data in dedicated signal-depleted control regions. The distribution of the transverse momentum of the second-hardest muon is used to search for signals originating from a heavy Majorana neutrino with a mass between 50 GeV and 20 TeV. No significant excess is observed over the background expectation. The results are interpreted in a benchmark scenario of the Phenomenological Type-I Seesaw model. In addition, the sensitivity to the Weinberg operator is investigated. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are placed on the squared muon-neutrino-heavy-neutrino mass-mixing matrix element $\vert V_{\mu N} \vert^{2}$ as a function of the heavy Majorana neutrino's mass $m_N$, and on the effective $\mu\mu$ Majorana neutrino mass $|m_{\mu\mu}|$.