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.

AbstractThis article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the $$WW^*(\rightarrow e\nu \mu \nu )jj$$ W W ∗ ( → e ν μ ν ) j j final state, based on a dataset corresponding to $${36.1}{{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}}$$ 36.1 fb - 1 of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13 TeV proton–proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon–gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs–gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of $$\tan (\alpha ) = 0.0 \pm 0.4 (\mathrm {stat.}) \pm 0.3 (\mathrm {syst.})$$ tan ( α ) = 0.0 ± 0.4 ( stat . ) ± 0.3 ( syst . ) is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised W and Z bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be $$a_\mathrm {L}=0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}$$ a L = 0 . 91 - 0.18 + 0.10 (stat.)$$^{+0.09}_{-0.17}$$ - 0.17 + 0.09 (syst.) and $$a_{\mathrm {T}}=1.2 \pm 0.4 $$ a T = 1.2 ± 0.4 (stat.)$$ ^{+0.2}_{-0.3} $$ - 0.3 + 0.2 (syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in $$\kappa _{VV}= 0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}$$ κ VV = 0 . 91 - 0.18 + 0.10 (stat.)$$^{+0.09}_{-0.17}$$ - 0.17 + 0.09 (syst.) and $$\epsilon _{VV} =0.13^{+0.28}_{-0.20}$$ ϵ VV = 0 . 13 - 0.20 + 0.28 (stat.)$$^{+0.08}_{-0.10}$$ - 0.10 + 0.08 (syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.

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.

An error in the normalization of the Aplanarity and D-parameter has been found. Insufficient precision on the eigenvalue calculation can cause lambda(3) to be negative, exclusively in two-jet events, yielding an underestimation of the inclusive two-jet cross section.

This letter presents a search for narrow, high-mass resonances in the Zγ final state with the Z boson decaying into a pair of electrons or muons. The 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 Zγ. 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 measurement of four-top-quark production using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ is presented. Events are selected if they contain a single lepton (electron or muon) or an opposite-sign lepton pair, in association with multiple jets. The events are categorised according to the number of jets and how likely these are to contain $b$-hadrons. A multivariate technique is then used to discriminate between signal and background events. The measured four-top-quark production cross section is found to be 26$^{+17}_{-15}$ fb, with a corresponding observed (expected) significance of 1.9 (1.0) standard deviations over the background-only hypothesis. The result is combined with the previous measurement performed by the ATLAS Collaboration in the multilepton final state. The combined four-top-quark production cross section is measured to be 24$^{+7}_{-6}$ fb, with a corresponding observed (expected) signal significance of 4.7 (2.6) standard deviations over the background-only predictions. It is consistent within 2.0 standard deviations with the Standard Model expectation of 12.0$\pm$2.4 fb.

AbstractA measurement of the $$ B_{s}^{0} \rightarrow J/\psi \phi $$ B s 0 → J / ψ ϕ decay parameters using $$ 80.5\, \mathrm {fb^{-1}} $$ 80.5 fb - 1 of integrated luminosity collected with the ATLAS detector from 13 $$\text {Te}\text {V}$$ Te proton–proton collisions at the LHC is presented. The measured parameters include the CP-violating phase $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s , the width difference $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s between the $$B_{s}^{0}$$ B s 0 meson mass eigenstates and the average decay width $$ \Gamma _{s}$$ Γ s . The values measured for the physical parameters are combined with those from $$ 19.2\, \mathrm {fb^{-1}} $$ 19.2 fb - 1 of 7 and 8 $$\text {Te}\text {V}$$ Te data, leading to the following: $$\begin{aligned} \phi _{s}= & {} -0.087 \pm 0.036 ~\mathrm {(stat.)} \pm 0.021 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~rad} \\ \Delta \Gamma _{s}= & {} 0.0657 \pm 0.0043 ~\mathrm {(stat.)}\pm 0.0037 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~ps}^{-1} \\ \Gamma _{s}= & {} 0.6703 \pm 0.0014 ~\mathrm {(stat.)}\pm 0.0018 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~ps}^{-1} \end{aligned}$$ ϕ s = - 0.087 ± 0.036 ( stat . ) ± 0.021 ( syst . ) rad Δ Γ s = 0.0657 ± 0.0043 ( stat . ) ± 0.0037 ( syst . ) ps - 1 Γ s = 0.6703 ± 0.0014 ( stat . ) ± 0.0018 ( syst . ) ps - 1 Results for $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s and $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s are also presented as 68% confidence level contours in the $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s –$$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s plane. Furthermore the transversity amplitudes and corresponding strong phases are measured. $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s and $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s measurements are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions.

One correction is noted for the paper. A wrong cross-section was used for the theory prediction in figure 6 due to not taking into account the VHH contamination properly in the rescaling formula for the signal samples.

The first measurement of longitudinal decorrelations of harmonic flow amplitudes v_{n} for n=2-4 in Xe+Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.44  TeV is obtained using 3  μb^{-1} of data with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The decorrelation signal for v_{3} and v_{4} is found to be nearly independent of collision centrality and transverse momentum (p_{T}) requirements on final-state particles, but for v_{2} a strong centrality and p_{T} dependence is seen. When compared with the results from Pb+Pb collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.02  TeV, the longitudinal decorrelation signal in midcentral Xe+Xe collisions is found to be larger for v_{2}, but smaller for v_{3}. Current hydrodynamic models reproduce the ratios of the v_{n} measured in Xe+Xe collisions to those in Pb+Pb collisions but fail to describe the magnitudes and trends of the ratios of longitudinal flow decorrelations between Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb. The results on the system-size dependence provide new insights and an important lever arm to separate effects of the longitudinal structure of the initial state from other early and late time effects in heavy-ion collisions.

A study of the charge conjugation and parity (CP) properties of the interaction between the Higgs boson and top quarks is presented. Higgs bosons are identified via the diphoton decay channel (H→γγ), and their production in association with a top quark pair (tt[over ¯]H) or single top quark (tH) is studied. The analysis uses 139  fb^{-1} of proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt[s]=13  TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Assuming a CP-even coupling, the tt[over ¯]H process is observed with a significance of 5.2 standard deviations. The measured cross section times H→γγ branching ratio is 1.64_{-0.36}^{+0.38}(stat)_{-0.14}^{+0.17}(sys)  fb, and the measured rate for tt[over ¯]H is 1.43_{-0.31}^{+0.33}(stat)_{-0.15}^{+0.21}(sys) times the Standard Model expectation. The tH production process is not observed and an upper limit on its rate of 12 times the Standard Model expectation is set. A CP-mixing angle greater (less) than 43 (-43)° is excluded at 95% confidence level.

It has been found that the theoretical predictions for W and Z boson cross sections, and for the W boson charge asymmetry, which are labelled as NNPDF3.1 [1] have in fact been calculated using the NNPDF3.0 PDF set [2] instead.

The algorithms used by the ATLAS Collaboration during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider to identify jets containing b-hadrons are presented. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated in the simulation and the efficiency with which these algorithms identify jets containing b-hadrons is measured in collision data. The measurement uses a likelihood-based method in a sample highly enriched in $$t{\bar{t}}$$ events. The topology of the $$t \rightarrow W b$$ decays is exploited to simultaneously measure both the jet flavour composition of the sample and the efficiency in a transverse momentum range from 20 to 600 GeV. The efficiency measurement is subsequently compared with that predicted by the simulation. The data used in this measurement, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 80.5 $$\hbox {fb}^{-1}$$, were collected in proton–proton collisions during the years 2015–2017 at a centre-of-mass energy $$\sqrt{s}=$$ 13 TeV. By simultaneously extracting both the efficiency and jet flavour composition, this measurement significantly improves the precision compared to previous results, with uncertainties ranging from 1 to 8% depending on the jet transverse momentum.

A measurement of the associated production of a top-quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) with a vector boson ($W$, $Z$) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented, using $36.1$ fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in channels with two same- or opposite-sign leptons (electrons or muons), three leptons or four leptons, and each channel is further divided into multiple regions to maximize the sensitivity of the measurement. The $t\bar{t}Z$ and $t\bar{t}W$ production cross sections are simultaneously measured using a combined fit to all regions. The best-fit values of the production cross sections are $\sigma_{t\bar{t}Z} = 0.95 \pm 0.08_{\mathrm{stat.}} \pm 0.10_{\mathrm{syst.}}$ pb and $\sigma_{t\bar{t}W} = 0.87 \pm 0.13_{\mathrm{stat.}} \pm 0.14_{\mathrm{syst.}}$ pb in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measurement of the $t\bar{t}Z$ cross section is used to set constraints on effective field theory operators which modify the $t\bar{t}Z$ vertex.

This change does not have any impact on the measured helicity fractions, but it changes the obtained limits on the anomalous couplings.

This paper reports searches for heavy resonances decaying into ZZ or ZW using data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √(s)=13 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb −1 , were recorded with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016 at the Large Hadron Collider. The searches are performed in final states in which one Z boson decays into either a pair of light charged leptons (electrons and muons) or a pair of neutrinos, and the associated W boson or the other Z boson decays hadronically. No evidence of the production of heavy resonances is observed. Upper bounds on the production cross sections of heavy resonances times their decay branching ratios to ZZ or ZW are derived in the mass range 300-5000GeV within the context of Standard Model extensions with additional Higgs bosons, a heavy vector triplet or warped extra dimensions. Production through gluon-gluon fusion, Drell-Yan or vector-boson fusion are considered, depending on the assumed model.

Abstract A search for supersymmetry involving the pair production of gluinos decaying via third-generation squarks into the lightest neutralino $$ \left({\tilde{\chi}}_1^0\right) $$ χ ˜ 1 0 is reported. It uses LHC proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy $$ \sqrt{s}=13 $$ s = 13 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 collected with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. The search is performed in events containing large missing transverse momentum and several energetic jets, at least three of which must be identified as originating from b-quarks. To increase the sensitivity, the sample is divided into subsamples based on the presence or absence of electrons or muons. No excess is found above the predicted background. For $$ {\tilde{\chi}}_1^0 $$ χ ˜ 1 0 masses below approximately 300 GeV, gluino masses of less than 1.97 (1.92) TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level in simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos that decay via top (bottom) squarks. An interpretation of the limits in terms of the branching ratios of the gluinos into third-generation squarks is also provided. These results improve upon the exclusion limits obtained with the 3.2 fb−1 of data collected in 2015.