A search for Higgs boson pair (HH) production in association with a vector boson V (W or Z boson) is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. All hadronic and leptonic decays of V bosons are used. The leptons considered are electrons, muons, and neutrinos. The HH production is searched for in the $\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$ decay channel. An observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level of VHH production cross section is set at 294 (124) times the standard model prediction. Constraints are also set on the modifiers of the Higgs boson trilinear self-coupling, $\kappa_{\lambda}$, assuming $\kappa_{2\mathrm{V}}$ = 1 and vice versa on the coupling of two Higgs bosons with two vector bosons, $\kappa_{2\mathrm{V}}$. The observed (expected) 95% confidence intervals of these coupling modifiers are -37.7 $\lt$ $\kappa_{\lambda}$ $\lt$ 37.2 (-30.1 $\lt$ $\kappa_{\lambda}$ $\lt$ 8.9) and -12.2 $\lt$ $\kappa_{2\mathrm{V}}$ $\lt$ 13.5 (-7.2 $\lt$ $\kappa_{2\mathrm{V}}$ $\lt$ 8.9), respectively.

A search for ZZ and ZH production in the $\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$ final state is presented, where H is the standard model (SM) Higgs boson. The search uses an event sample of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 133 fb$^{-1}$ collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The analysis introduces several novel techniques for deriving and validating a multi-dimensional background model based on control samples in data. A multiclass multivariate classifier customized for the $\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$ final state is developed to derive the background model and extract the signal. The data are found to be consistent, within uncertainties, with the SM predictions. The observed (expected) upper limits at 95% confidence level are found to be 3.8 (3.8) and 5.0 (2.9) times the SM prediction for the ZZ and ZH production cross sections, respectively.

Measurements of inclusive charged-particle jet production in pp and p-Pb collisions at center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV and the corresponding nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm pPb}^{\rm ch\,jet}$ are presented, using data collected with the ALICE detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed in the central rapidity region $|\eta_{\rm jet}| < 0.5$ from charged particles using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm with resolution parameters $R = 0.2$, 0.3, and 0.4. The $p_{\rm T}$-differential inclusive production cross section of charged-particle jets, as well as the corresponding cross-section ratios, are reported for pp and p-Pb collisions in the transverse momentum range $10 < p^{\rm ch}_{\rm T,jet} < 140$ GeV/$c$ and $10 < p^{\rm ch}_{\rm T,jet} < 160$ GeV/$c$, respectively, together with the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm pPb}^{\rm ch\,jet}$ in the range $10 < p^{\rm ch}_{\rm T,jet} < 140$ GeV/$c$. The analysis extends the $p_{\rm T}$ range of the previously-reported charged-particle jet measurements by the ALICE Collaboration. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with one and independent of the jet resolution parameter with the improved precision of this study, indicating that the possible influence of cold nuclear matter effects on the production cross section of charged-particle jets in p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV is smaller than the current precision. The obtained results are in agreement with other minimum bias jet measurements available for RHIC and LHC energies, and are well reproduced by the NLO perturbative QCD POWHEG calculations with parton shower provided by PYTHIA8 as well as by JETSCAPE simulations.

Measurements of the charge-dependent two-particle angular correlation function in proton-lead (pPb) collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 8.16 TeV and lead-lead (PbPb) collisions at$\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV are reported. The pPb and PbPb datasets correspond to integrated luminosities of 186\nbinv and 0.607 nb$^{-1}$, respectively, and were collected using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The charge-dependent correlations are characterized by balance functions of same- and opposite-sign particle pairs. The balance functions, which contain information about the creation time of charged particle pairs and the development of collectivity, are studied as functions of relative pseudorapidity ($\Delta \eta$) and relative azimuthal angle ($\Delta \phi$), for various multiplicity and transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) intervals. A multiplicity dependence of the balance function is observed in $\Delta \eta$ and $\Delta \phi$ for both systems. The width of the balance functions decreases towards high-multiplicity collisions in the momentum region $\lt$2 GeV, for pPb and PbPb results. No multiplicity dependence is observed at higher transverse momentum. The data are compared with HYDJET, HIJING and AMPT generator predictions, none of which capture completely the multiplicity dependence seen in the data.

Quasireal photons exchanged in relativistic heavy ion interactions are powerful probes of the gluonic structure of nuclei. The coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction cross section in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions is measured as a function of photon-nucleus center-of-mass energies per nucleon (W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$), over a wide range of 40 $\lt$ W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$$\lt$ 400 GeV. Results are obtained using data at the nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.52 nb$^{-1}$. The cross section is observed to rise rapidly at low W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$, and plateau above W$^\text{Pb}_{\gamma\text{N}}$$\approx$ 40 GeV, up to 400 GeV, a new regime of small Bjorken-$x$ ($\approx$ 6 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$) gluons being probed in a heavy nucleus. The observed energy dependence is not predicted by current quantum chromodynamic models.

Despite the f$_0$(980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$) meson, a tetraquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f$_0$(980) state is an ordinary $\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies ($v_2$) with the number of constituent quarks ($n_\mathrm{q}$), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f$_0$(980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f$_0$(980) $\to$$\pi^+\pi^-$, in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and its $v_2$ is measured as a function of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$). It is found that the $n_q$ = 2 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ state) hypothesis is favored over $n_q$ = 4 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$ or $\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$ states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 10, 8, or 6 GeV/$c$ ranges, respectively, and over $n_\mathrm{q}$ = 3 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$ hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 8 GeV/$c$ range. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f$_0$(980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates.

A search for partonic collective effects inside jets produced in proton-proton collisions is performed via correlation measurements of charged constituents using the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The analysis uses data collected at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm with a distance parameter of 0.8 and are required to have transverse momentum greater than 550 GeV and pseudorapidity $\lvert\eta\rvert$$\lt$ 1.6. Two-particle correlations among the charged constituents within the jets are studied as functions of the particles' azimuthal angle and pseudorapidity separations ($\Delta\phi^*$ and $\Delta\eta^*$) in a jet coordinate basis, where constituents' $\eta^*$, $\phi^*$ are defined relative to the direction of the jet. The correlation functions are studied in classes of in-jet charged-particle multiplicity up to $N_\text{ch}^\mathrm{j}$$\approx$ 100. Fourier harmonics are extracted from long-range azimuthal correlation functions to characterize azimuthal anisotropy for $\lvert\Delta\eta^*\rvert$$\gt$ 2. For low-multiplicity jets, the long-range elliptic anisotropic harmonic, $v^*_2$, is observed to decrease with $N_\text{ch}^\mathrm{j}$. This trend is well described by Monte Carlo event generators. However, a rising trend for $v^*_2$ emerges at $N_\text{ch}^\mathrm{j}$$\gtrsim$ 80, hinting at a possible onset of collective behavior, which is not reproduced by the models tested. This observation yields new insights into the dynamics of parton fragmentation processes in the vacuum.

The azimuthal anisotropy of $\Upsilon$(1S) mesons in high-multiplicity proton-lead collisions is studied using data collected by the CMS experiment at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 8.16 TeV. The $\Upsilon$(1S) mesons are reconstructed using their dimuon decay channel. The anisotropy is characterized by the second Fourier harmonic coefficients, found using a two-particle correlation technique, in which the $\Upsilon$(1S) mesons are correlated with charged hadrons. A large pseudorapidity gap is used to suppress short-range correlations. Nonflow contamination from the dijet background is removed using a low-multiplicity subtraction method, and the results are presented as a function of $\Upsilon$(1S) transverse momentum. The azimuthal anisotropies are smaller than those found for charmonia in proton-lead collisions at the same collision energy, but are consistent with values found for $\Upsilon$(1S) mesons in lead-lead interactions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV.

A search for long-lived particles decaying into hadrons is presented. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data collected at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC using events that contain multiple energetic jets and a displaced vertex. The search employs dedicated reconstruction techniques that significantly increase the sensitivity to long-lived particles decaying in the ATLAS inner detector. Background estimates for Standard Model processes and instrumental effects are extracted from data. The observed event yields are compatible with those expected from background processes. The results are used to set limits at 95% confidence level on model-independent cross sections for processes beyond the Standard Model, and on scenarios with pair-production of supersymmetric particles with long-lived electroweakinos that decay via a small $R$-parity-violating coupling. The pair-production of electroweakinos with masses below 1.5 TeV is excluded for mean proper lifetimes in the range from 0.03 ns to 1 ns. When produced in the decay of $m(\tilde{g})=2.4$ TeV gluinos, electroweakinos with $m(\tilde\chi^0_1)=1.5$ TeV are excluded with lifetimes in the range of 0.02 ns to 4 ns.

Transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) spectra of charged particles at mid-pseudorapidity in Xe-Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.44 TeV measured with the ALICE apparatus at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The kinematic range $0.15 < p_{\rm T} < 50$ GeV/$c$ and $|\eta| < 0.8$ is covered. Results are presented in nine classes of collision centrality in the 0-80% range. For comparison, a pp reference at the collision energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.44 TeV is obtained by interpolating between existing \pp measurements at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 and 7 TeV. The nuclear modification factors in central Xe-Xe collisions and Pb-Pb collisions at a similar center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, and in addition at 2.76 TeV, at analogous ranges of charged particle multiplicity density $\left\langle\rm{d}N_{\rm ch}/\rm{d}\eta\right\rangle$ show a remarkable similarity at $p_{\rm T}> 10$ GeV/$c$. The comparison of the measured $R_{\rm AA}$ values in the two colliding systems could provide insight on the path length dependence of medium-induced parton energy loss. The centrality dependence of the ratio of the average transverse momentum $\left\langle p_{\rm{T}}\right\rangle$ in Xe-Xe collisions over Pb-Pb collision at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV is compared to hydrodynamical model calculations.