ATLAS is currently preparing for the HL-LHC upgrade, with an all-silicon Inner Tracker (ITk) that will replace the current Inner Detector. The ITk will feature a pixel detector surrounded by a strip detector, with the strip system consisting of 4 barrel layers and 6 endcap disks. The basic building block of the ITk Strip detector is the “module,” composed of front-end electronics glued to a silicon microstrip sensor. A critical problem was encountered during pre-production of ITk Strip modules when it was found a significant fraction of silicon sensors cracked due to thermal stresses when glued to local support structures and brought to cold operating temperatures. A taskforce was established, and an extensive program of simulations, test setups and research arrived at possible solution for the barrel layers, with the use a stress-relieving layer (interposer) into the module assembly process. Results from the taskforce, including simulations, radiation studies and quality control testing are shown for modules and their loaded local supports. These solutions have allowed the recommencement of Strip Module production.

The High-Luminosity LHC upgrade necessitates a complete replacement of the ATLAS Inner Detector with a larger all-silicon tracker. The strip portion of it covers 165 m$^2$ area, afforded by the strip sensors. Following several prototype iterations and a successful pre-production, a full-scale production started in 2021, to finish in 2025. It will include about 21,000 wafers and a factor of 5 higher throughput than pre-production, with about 500 sensors produced and tested per month. The transition to production stressed the need to evaluate the results from the Quality Control (QC) and Quality Assurance (QA) tests quickly to meet the monthly delivery schedule. The test data come from 15 collaborating institutes, therefore a highly distributed system with standardized interfaces was required. Specialized software layers of QA and QC Python code were developed against the backend of the ITk database (DB) for this purpose. The developments included particularities and special needs of the Strip Sensors community, such as the large variety of different test devices and test types, the necessary test formats, and different workflows at the test sites. Special attention was paid to techniques facilitating the development and user operations, for example creation of “parallel” sets of dummy DB objects for practice purposes, iterative verification of operability, and the automatic upload of test data. The scalability concerns and automation of the data handling were included in the system architecture from the very inception. The full suite of functionalities include data integrity checks, data processing to extract and evaluate key parameters, cross-test comparisons, and summary reporting for continuous monitoring. We will also describe the lessons learned and the necessary evolution of the system.

A bstract A search for the exclusive decays of the Higgs and Z bosons to a ϕ or ρ meson and a photon is performed with a pp collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 35 . 6 fb −1 collected at $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. These decays have been suggested as a probe of the Higgs boson couplings to light quarks. No significant excess of events is observed above the background, as expected from the Standard Model. Upper limits at 95% confidence level were obtained on the branching fractions of the Higgs boson decays to ϕ γ and ρ γ of 4 . 8 × 10 −4 and 8 . 8 × 10 −4 , respectively. The corresponding 95% confidence level upper limits for the Z boson decays are 0 . 9 × 10 −6 and 25 × 10 −6 for ϕ γ and ρ γ, respectively.

A search for leptoquarks decaying into the bτ final state is performed using Run 2 proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 at √(s) = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector. The benchmark models considered in this search are vector leptoquarks with electric charge of 2/3e and scalar leptoquarks with an electric charge of 4/3e. No significant excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed, and 95

The total and differential Higgs boson production cross-sections are measured through a combined statistical analysis of the H → ZZ* → 4ℓ and H → γγ decay channels. The results are based on a dataset of 139 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured total Higgs boson production cross-section is 55.5_-3.8^+4.0 pb, consistent with the Standard Model prediction of 55.6 ± 2.5 pb. All results from the two decay channels are compatible with each other, and their combination agrees with the Standard Model predictions. A combined statistical interpretation of the measured fiducial cross-sections as a function of the Higgs boson transverse momentum is performed in order to probe the Yukawa couplings to the bottom and charm quarks. A similar interpretation is performed by including also the constraints from the measurements of Higgs boson production in association with a W or Z boson in the H → bb and cc decay channels.

The development of semiconductor sensors for new particle tracking detectors places increasing limits on sensor characteristics such as uniformity, size and shape of inefficient areas and size of active compared to inactive sensor areas. Accurately assessing these relatively subtle effects requires either measurements in particle beams or the modification of samples to be used in dedicated laser test setups. Active Region Extent Assessment with X-rays (AREA-X) has been developed as an alternative method for the fast, efficient and precise study of the active area of a semiconductor sensor. It uses a monochromatic, micro-focused X-ray beam with a 10–20 keV energy range as provided by several synchrotron beam lines and uses the photo current induced in the sensor to measure the depth of the responsive sensor volume. It can be used to study local inhomogeneities or inefficiencies, the overall extent of the active sensor volume and its shape and its localised application, which makes the need to gather statistics over a large area unnecessary, allowing for fast readout, which enables studies of the sensor behaviour at a range of external parameters, e.g. temperature or applied bias voltage. This paper presents the measurement concept and technical setup of the measurement, results from initial measurements as well as capabilities and limitations of the method.

A technique is presented to measure the efficiency with which c -jets are mistagged as b -jets (mistagging efficiency) using $$t\bar{t}$$ t t ¯ events, where one of the W bosons decays into an electron or muon and a neutrino and the other decays into a quark–antiquark pair. The measurement utilises the relatively large and known $$W\rightarrow cs$$ W → c s branching ratio, which allows a measurement to be made in an inclusive c -jet sample. The data sample used was collected by the ATLAS detector at $$\sqrt{s} = 13$$ s = 13   $$\text {TeV}$$ TeV and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb $$^{-1}$$ - 1 . Events are reconstructed using a kinematic likelihood technique which selects the mapping between jets and $$t\bar{t}$$ t t ¯ decay products that yields the highest likelihood value. The distribution of the b -tagging discriminant for jets from the hadronic W decays in data is compared with that in simulation to extract the mistagging efficiency as a function of jet transverse momentum. The total uncertainties are in the range 3–17%. The measurements generally agree with those in simulation but there are some differences in the region corresponding to the most stringent b -jet tagging requirement.