Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the final state in pp collisions at = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The vector-boson production cross-section for the Higgs boson decay in the channel is measured as a function of kinematic observables sensitive to the Higgs boson production and decay properties as well as integrated in a fiducial phase space. The analysis is performed using the proton--proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector in Run 2 of the LHC at center-of-mass energy, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb. The opposite lepton flavor final state is studied by selecting an electron and a muon originating from a pair of bosons and compatible with the Higgs boson decay. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution, and the measurements are compared with different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions. The differential cross-sections are used to constrain anomalous interactions described by dimension-six operators in an Effective Field Theory.

Measurements of inclusive, differential cross-sections for the production of events with missing transverse momentum in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at ~TeV are presented. The measurements are made with the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 140~fb and include measurements of dijet distributions in a region in which vector-boson fusion processes are enhanced. They are unfolded to correct for detector resolution and efficiency within the fiducial acceptance, and are designed to allow robust comparisons with a wide range of theoretical predictions. A measurement of differential cross sections for the process is made. The measurements are generally well-described by Standard Model predictions except for the dijet invariant mass distribution. Auxiliary measurements of the hadronic system recoiling against isolated leptons, and photons, are also made in the same phase space. Ratios between the measured distributions are then derived, to take advantage of cancellations in modelling effects and some of the major systematic uncertainties. These measurements are sensitive to new phenomena, and provide a mechanism to easily set constraints on phenomenological models. To illustrate the robustness of the approach, these ratios are compared with two common Dark Matter models, where the constraints derived from the measurement are comparable to those set by dedicated detector-level searches.

The European Physical Journal C

The inclusive Higgs boson production cross-section is measured in the di-photon and the decay channels using 31.4 and 29.0 fb of pp collision data respectively, collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of  . To reduce the model dependence, the measurement in each channel is restricted to a particle-level phase space that closely matches the channel’s detector-level kinematic selection, and it is corrected for detector effects. These measured fiducial cross-sections are   fb, and   fb, in agreement with the corresponding Standard Model predictions of  fb and  fb. Assuming Standard Model acceptances and branching fractions for the two channels, the fiducial measurements are extrapolated to the full phase space yielding total cross-sections of  pb and  pb at 13.6  from the di-photon and  …

Minor Planet Bulletin

We report the discovery and confirmation of a previously unknown satellite of the main-belt asteroid 5457 Queen's (1980 TW5) via GPS-time-stamped video recordings of two stellar occultations. The first occultation on 2023 September 4.93059 resulted in three positive chords from the Czech Republic and Switzerland for the main body, allowing an elliptical fit of 24.6±0.9 km× 16.2±0.7 km, and in a 2.0±0.2 km chord of the presumed satellite. 15.07 days later, on September 20.00597, the satellite was confirmed by an observer in Greece, who determined a chord of 17.5±0.5 km for the main body and a chord of 2.8±0.5 km for the satellite. Using both satellite chords as diameters of spherical bodies, we derived the following satellite distances from the main body: 2023 September 4.93059: separation 11.4±0.7 mas, pa 52.2±3.0; 2023 September 20.00597: separation 20.4±0.5 mas, pa 248.8±3.0. Further observations …

A search for R-parity-violating supersymmetry in final states with high jet multiplicity is presented. The search uses of proton--proton collision data at collected by the ATLAS experiment during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. The results are interpreted in the context of R-parity-violating supersymmetry models that feature prompt gluino-pair production decaying directly to three jets each or decaying to two jets and a neutralino which subsequently decays promptly to three jets. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are extracted. Gluinos with masses up to 1800 GeV are excluded when decaying directly to three jets. In the cascade scenario, gluinos with masses up to 2340 GeV are excluded for a neutralino with mass up to 1250 GeV

Measurements of inclusive and normalized differential cross sections of the associated production of top quark-antiquark and bottom quark-antiquark pairs, ttbb, are presented. The results are based on data from proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb− 1. The cross sections are measured in the lepton+ jets decay channel of the top quark pair, using events containing exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least five jets. Measurements are made in four fiducial phase space regions, targeting different aspects of the ttbb process. Distributions are unfolded to the particle level through maximum likelihood fits, and compared with predictions from several event generators. The inclusive cross section measurements of this process in the fiducial phase space regions are the most precise to date. In most cases, the measured inclusive cross sections exceed the predictions with the chosen generator settings. The only exception is when using a particular choice of dynamic renormalization scale, µR= 12 ni= t, t, b, b m1/4

arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.05383

Daya Bay presents the first measurement of cosmogenic He isotope production in liquid scintillator, using an innovative method for identifying cascade decays of He and its child isotope, Li. We also measure the production yield of Li isotopes using well-established methodology. The results, in units of 10gcm, are 0.3070.042, 0.3410.040, and 0.5460.076 for He, and 6.730.73, 6.750.70, and 13.740.82 for Li at average muon energies of 63.9~GeV, 64.7~GeV, and 143.0~GeV, respectively. The measured production rate of He isotopes is more than an order of magnitude lower than any other measurement of cosmogenic isotope production. It replaces the results of previous attempts to determine the ratio of He to Li production that yielded a wide range of limits from 0 to 30\%. The results provide future liquid-scintillator-based experiments with improved ability to predict cosmogenic backgrounds.

Measurements of inclusive and normalized differential cross sections of the associated production of top quark-antiquark and bottom quark-antiquark pairs, ttbb, are presented. The results are based on data from proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb− 1. The cross sections are measured in the lepton+ jets decay channel of the top quark pair, using events containing exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least five jets. Measurements are made in four fiducial phase space regions, targeting different aspects of the ttbb process. Distributions are unfolded to the particle level through maximum likelihood fits, and compared with predictions from several event generators. The inclusive cross section measurements of this process in the fiducial phase space regions are the most precise to date. In most cases, the measured inclusive cross sections exceed the predictions with the chosen generator settings. The only exception is when using a particular choice of dynamic renormalization scale, µR= 12 ni= t, t, b, b m1/4

arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.18731

Searches for the exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into and of the boson into and can probe flavour-violating Higgs and boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of fb collected at TeV between 2016-2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the and channels, the observed (expected) 95 confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are , , while the corresponding results in the channel are .

Measurements of inclusive, differential cross-sections for the production of events with missing transverse momentum in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at ~TeV are presented. The measurements are made with the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 140~fb and include measurements of dijet distributions in a region in which vector-boson fusion processes are enhanced. They are unfolded to correct for detector resolution and efficiency within the fiducial acceptance, and are designed to allow robust comparisons with a wide range of theoretical predictions. A measurement of differential cross sections for the process is made. The measurements are generally well-described by Standard Model predictions except for the dijet invariant mass distribution. Auxiliary measurements of the hadronic system recoiling against isolated leptons, and photons, are also made in the same phase space. Ratios between the measured distributions are then derived, to take advantage of cancellations in modelling effects and some of the major systematic uncertainties. These measurements are sensitive to new phenomena, and provide a mechanism to easily set constraints on phenomenological models. To illustrate the robustness of the approach, these ratios are compared with two common Dark Matter models, where the constraints derived from the measurement are comparable to those set by dedicated detector-level searches.

The ratio of branching ratios of the boson to muons and electrons, , has been measured using 140 fb of collision data at TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, probing the universality of lepton couplings. The ratio is obtained from measurements of the production cross-section in the , and dilepton final states. To reduce systematic uncertainties, it is normalised by the square root of the corresponding ratio for the boson measured in inclusive and events. By using the precise value of determined from colliders, the ratio is determined to be . The three uncertainties correspond to data statistics, experimental systematics and the external measurement of , giving a total uncertainty of 0.0045, and confirming the Standard Model assumption of lepton flavour universality in -boson decays at the 0.5% level.

Journal of High Energy Physics

Differential cross-sections are measured for the production of four charged leptons in association with two jets. These measurements are sensitive to final states in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction as well as to the purely-electroweak vector boson scattering process. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at= 13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb− 1. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are compared to state-of-the-art Monte Carlo event generator predictions. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions that are induced by dimension-six and dimension-eight operators in Standard Model effective field theory.

Chinese physics C

The identification of jets originating from quarks and gluons, often referred to as quark/gluon tagging, plays an important role in various analyses performed at the Large Hadron Collider, as Standard Model measurements and searches for new particles decaying to quarks often rely on suppressing a large gluon-induced background. This paper describes the measurement of the efficiencies of quark/gluon taggers developed within the ATLAS Collaboration, using TeV proton–proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb collected by the ATLAS experiment. Two taggers with high performances in rejecting jets from gluon over jets from quarks are studied: one tagger is based on requirements on the number of inner-detector tracks associated with the jet, and the other combines several jet substructure observables using a boosted decision tree. A method is established to determine the quark/gluon fraction in data, by using quark/gluon-enriched subsamples defined by the jet pseudorapidity. Differences in tagging efficiency between data and simulation are provided for jets with transverse momentum between 500 GeV and 2 TeV and for multiple tagger working points.

The Large Hadron Collider is at the high-energy frontier of particle physics, having produced protonproton collisions during Run 2, from 2015 to 2018, at an unprecedented centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The ATLAS experiment has a broad programme to thoroughly explore this uncharted territory, to seek out new exotic particles predicted by theories that boldly go beyond the Standard Model. Although the Standard Model has been very successful, it leaves many questions unanswered, prompting novel ideas about particles that could be hiding in the data, waiting to be discovered by intrepid explorers. These include dark-matter candidates, hidden-sector particles, new vector resonances, leptoquarks, and vector-like quarks, to name a few examples. Searches for new particles are reported here, with the exception of searches for supersymmetry or extended Higgs sectors as these are the subjects of separate reports.

Journal of High Energy Physics

A search for nonresonant Higgs boson pair production in the final state is performed using 140 fb− 1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This analysis supersedes and expands upon the previous nonresonant ATLAS results in this final state based on the same data sample. The analysis strategy is optimised to probe anomalous values not only of the Higgs (H) boson self-coupling modifier κ λ but also of the quartic HHVV (V= W, Z) coupling modifier κ 2V. No significant excess above the expected background from Standard Model processes is observed. An observed upper limit μ HH< 4.0 is set at 95% confidence level on the Higgs boson pair production cross-section normalised to its Standard Model prediction. The 95% confidence intervals for the coupling modifiers are− 1.4< κ λ< 6.9 and− 0.5< κ 2V< 2.7, assuming …

Chinese physics C

The identification of jets originating from quarks and gluons, often referred to as quark/gluon tagging, plays an important role in various analyses performed at the Large Hadron Collider, as Standard Model measurements and searches for new particles decaying to quarks often rely on suppressing a large gluon-induced background. This paper describes the measurement of the efficiencies of quark/gluon taggers developed within the ATLAS Collaboration, using TeV proton–proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb collected by the ATLAS experiment. Two taggers with high performances in rejecting jets from gluon over jets from quarks are studied: one tagger is based on requirements on the number of inner-detector tracks associated with the jet, and the other combines several jet substructure observables using a boosted decision tree. A method is established to determine the quark/gluon fraction in data, by using quark/gluon-enriched subsamples defined by the jet pseudorapidity. Differences in tagging efficiency between data and simulation are provided for jets with transverse momentum between 500 GeV and 2 TeV and for multiple tagger working points.

Measurements of inclusive and normalized differential cross sections of the associated production of top quark-antiquark and bottom quark-antiquark pairs, ttbb, are presented. The results are based on data from proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb− 1. The cross sections are measured in the lepton+ jets decay channel of the top quark pair, using events containing exactly one isolated electron or muon and at least five jets. Measurements are made in four fiducial phase space regions, targeting different aspects of the ttbb process. Distributions are unfolded to the particle level through maximum likelihood fits, and compared with predictions from several event generators. The inclusive cross section measurements of this process in the fiducial phase space regions are the most precise to date. In most cases, the measured inclusive cross sections exceed the predictions with the chosen generator settings. The only exception is when using a particular choice of dynamic renormalization scale, µR= 12 ni= t, t, b, b m1/4

arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.18731

Searches for the exclusive decays of the Higgs boson into and of the boson into and can probe flavour-violating Higgs and boson couplings to light quarks. Searches for these decays are performed with a collision data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of fb collected at TeV between 2016-2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In the and channels, the observed (expected) 95 confidence-level upper limits on the respective branching fractions are , , while the corresponding results in the channel are .

The European Physical Journal C

A search for the production of single-top-quarks in association with missing energy is performed in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of with the ATLAS experiment at the large hadron collider using data collected in 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of  fb. In this search, the boson from the top quark is required to decay into an electron or a muon and a neutrino. No deviation from the standard model prediction is observed, and upper limits are set on the production cross-section for resonant and non-resonant production of an invisible exotic state in association with a right-handed top quark. In the case of resonant production, for a spin- resonance with a mass of  GeV, an effective coupling strength above is excluded at 95 confidence level for the top quark and an invisible spin- state with mass between and  GeV. In the case of non-resonant production, an effective …

A search for a new heavy boson produced via gluon-fusion in the four-lepton channel with missing transverse momentum or jets is performed. The search uses proton-proton collision data equivalent to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector between 2015 and 2018 at the Large Hadron Collider. This study explores the decays of heavy bosons: and , where is a CP-even boson, is a CP-odd boson, is a CP-even boson, and is considered to decay into invisible particles that are candidates for dark matter. In these processes, and . The boson associated with the heavy scalar boson decays into all decay channels of the boson. The mass range under consideration is 390-1300 (320-1300) GeV for the () boson and 220-1000 GeV for the boson. No significant deviation from the Standard Model backgrounds is observed. The results are interpreted as upper limits at a 95% confidence level on the cross-section times the branching ratio of the heavy resonances.

Physics Letters B

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→ b b channel and the other via one of the H→ W W⁎/Z Z⁎/τ τ 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− 0.3+ 0.4) pb is set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section at 95% confidence level, which is equivalent to 40 (29− 9+ 14) times the value predicted in the Standard Model.

Physics Letters B

We study different entropies for coherent states representing the geometry of spherically symmetric compact systems. We show that the thermodynamic entropy reproduces the Bekenstein-Hawking result in the presence of thermal modes at the Hawking temperature if the object is a black hole and saturates the Bekenstein bound for more general compact objects. We also analyse the information entropy of the quantum coherent state without radiation and find further support against the singular Schwarzschild geometry.

Physics Letters B

Semi-visible jets, with a significant contribution to the event's missing transverse momentum, can arise in strongly interacting dark sectors. This results in an event topology where one of the jets can be aligned with the direction of the missing transverse momentum. The first search for semi-visible jets produced via a t-channel mediator exchange is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 and a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during the Run 2 of the LHC. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed. Assuming a coupling strength of unity between the mediator, a Standard Model quark and a dark quark, mediator masses up to 2.7 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. Upper limits on the coupling strength are also derived.

Physics Letters B

The inclusive top-quark-pair production cross section σ t t¯ and its ratio to the Z-boson production cross section have been measured in proton–proton collisions at s= 13.6 TeV, using 29 fb− 1 of data collected in 2022 with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Using events with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair and b-tagged jets, and assuming Standard Model decays, the top-quark-pair production cross section is measured to be σ t t¯= 850±3 (stat.)±18 (syst.)±20 (lumi.) pb. The ratio of the t t¯ and the Z-boson production cross sections is also measured, where the Z-boson contribution is determined for inclusive e+ e− and μ+ μ− events in a fiducial phase space. The relative uncertainty on the ratio is reduced compared to the t t¯ cross section, thanks to the cancellation of several systematic uncertainties. The result for the ratio, R t t¯/Z= 1.145±0.003 (stat.)±0.021 (syst.)±0.002 (lumi.) is consistent …

Physics Letters B

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.

Physics Letters B

This letter reports the observation of W (ℓ ν) γ γ production in proton-proton collisions. This measurement uses the full Run 2 sample of events recorded at a center-of-mass energy of s= 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb− 1. Events with a leptonically-decaying W boson and at least two photons are considered. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with an observed and expected significance of 5.6 standard deviations. The inclusive fiducial production cross section of W (e ν) γ γ and W (μ ν) γ γ events is measured to be σ fid= 13.8±1.1 (stat)+ 2.1− 2.0 (syst)±0.1 (lumi) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction.

Physics Letters B

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→ b b channel and the other via one of the H→ W W⁎/Z Z⁎/τ τ 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− 0.3+ 0.4) pb is set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section at 95% confidence level, which is equivalent to 40 (29− 9+ 14) times the value predicted in the Standard Model.

Physics Letters B

A search for the decay of the Higgs boson to a Z boson and a light, pseudoscalar particle, a, decaying respectively to two leptons and to two photons is reported. The search uses the full LHC Run 2 proton–proton collision data at s= 13 TeV, corresponding to 139 fb− 1 collected by the ATLAS detector. This is one of the first searches for this specific decay mode of the Higgs boson, and it probes unexplored parameter space in models with axion-like particles (ALPs) and extended scalar sectors. The mass of the a particle is assumed to be in the range 0.1–33 GeV. The data are analysed in two categories: a merged category where the photons from the a decay are reconstructed in the ATLAS calorimeter as a single cluster, and a resolved category in which two separate photons are detected. The main background processes are from Standard Model Z boson production in association with photons or jets. The data are in …

Physics Letters B

Measurements of the elliptic (v 2) and triangular (v 3) azimuthal anisotropy coefficients are presented for Image 1 mesons produced in Image 2 hadron decays (nonprompt Image 1 mesons) in lead-lead collisions at s NN= 5.02 TeV. The results are compared with previously published charm meson anisotropies measured using prompt Image 1 mesons. The data were collected with the CMS detector in 2018 with an integrated luminosity of 0.58 nb− 1. Azimuthal anisotropy is sensitive to the interactions of quarks with the hot and dense medium created in heavy ion collisions. Comparing results for prompt and nonprompt Image 1 mesons can assist in understanding the mass dependence of these interactions. The nonprompt results show lower magnitudes of v 2 and v 3 and weaker dependences on the meson transverse momentum and collision centrality than those found for prompt Image 1 mesons. The results are …

Physics Letters B

We investigate the relation between quantum nonlocality and gravity at the astrophysical scale, both in the classical and quantum regimes. Considering a gedanken experiment involving particle pairs orbiting in the strong gravitational field of ultra-compact objects, we find that the violation of Bell inequality acquires an angular modulation factor that strongly depends on the nature of the gravitational source. We show how such gravitationally-induced modulation of quantum nonlocality readily discriminates between black holes (both classical and inclusive of quantum corrections) and string fuzzballs, i.e., the true quantum description of ultra-compact objects according to string theory. These findings promote Bell nonlocality as a potentially key tool in putting quantum gravity to the test.

Physics Letters B

In this Letter, the first measurement of the inelastic cross section for antitriton–nucleus interactions is reported, covering the momentum range of 0.8≤ p< 2.4 GeV/c. The measurement is carried out using data recorded with the ALICE detector in pp and Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon of 13 TeV and 5.02 TeV, respectively. The detector material serves as an absorber for antitriton nuclei. The raw yield of (anti) triton nuclei measured with the ALICE apparatus is compared to the results from detailed ALICE simulations based on the Image 1 toolkit for the propagation of (anti) particles through matter, allowing one to quantify the inelastic interaction probability in the detector material. This analysis complements the measurement of the inelastic cross section of antinuclei up to A= 3 carried out by the ALICE Collaboration, and demonstrates the feasibility of the study of the isospin dependence of …

Physics Letters B

The ALICE Collaboration reports a differential measurement of inclusive jet suppression using pp and Pb–Pb collision data at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon–nucleon collision s NN= 5.02 TeV. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed using the anti-k T algorithm with resolution parameters R= 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 in pp collisions and R= 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 in central (0–10%), semi-central (30–50%), and peripheral (60–80%) Pb–Pb collisions. A novel approach based on machine learning is employed to mitigate the influence of jet background. This enables measurements of inclusive jet suppression in new regions of phase space, including down to the lowest jet p T≥ 40 GeV/c at R= 0.6 in central Pb–Pb collisions. This is an important step for discriminating different models of jet quenching in the quark–gluon plasma. The transverse momentum spectra, nuclear modification factors, derived cross section, and …

Physics Letters B

The measurements of the inclusive J/ψ yield at midrapidity (| y|< 0. 9) and forward rapidity (2.5< y< 4) in Pb–Pb collisions at s NN= 5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC are reported. The inclusive J/ψ production yields and nuclear modification factors, R AA, are measured as a function of the collision centrality, J/ψ transverse momentum (p T), and rapidity. The J/ψ average transverse momentum and squared transverse momentum (< p T> and< p T 2>) are evaluated as a function of the centrality at midrapidity. Compared to the previous ALICE publications, here the entire Pb–Pb collisions dataset collected during the LHC Run 2 is used, which improves the precision of the measurements and extends the p T coverage. The p T-integrated R AA shows a hint of an increasing trend towards unity from semicentral to central collisions at midrapidity, while it is flat at forward rapidity. The p T-differential R AA shows a …

Physics Letters B

The first measurements of skewness and kurtosis of mean transverse momentum (< p T>) fluctuations are reported in Pb–Pb collisions at s NN= 5.02 TeV, Xe–Xe collisions at s NN= 5.44 TeV and pp collisions at s= 5.02 TeV using the ALICE detector. The measurements are carried out as a function of system size< d N ch/d η>| η|< 0.5 1/3, using charged particles with transverse momentum (p T) and pseudorapidity (η), in the range 0.2< p T< 3.0 GeV/c and| η|< 0.8, respectively. In Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions, positive skewness is observed in the fluctuations of< p T> for all centralities, which is significantly larger than what would be expected in the scenario of independent particle emission. This positive skewness is considered a crucial consequence of the hydrodynamic evolution of the hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy-ion collisions. Furthermore, similar observations of positive skewness for minimum …

Physics Letters B

The pseudorapidity dependence of elliptic (v 2), triangular (v 3), and quadrangular (v 4) flow coefficients of charged particles measured in Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of s NN= 5.02 TeV and in Xe–Xe collisions at s NN= 5.44 TeV with ALICE at the LHC are presented. The measurements are performed in the pseudorapidity range− 3.5< η< 5 for various centrality intervals using two-and multi-particle cumulants with the subevent method. The flow probability density function (pdf) is studied with the ratio of flow coefficient v 2 calculated with four-and two-particle cumulant, and suggests that the variance of flow pdf is independent of pseudorapidity. The decorrelation of the flow vector in the longitudinal direction is probed using two-particle correlations. The results measured with respect to different reference regions in pseudorapidity exhibit differences, argued to be a result of saturating …

Physics Letters B

The magnetic dipole moments (μ) of 209 Tl g (N= 128) and 207 Tl m (N= 126) have been measured for the first time using the in-source laser resonance-ionization spectroscopy technique with the Laser Ion Source and Trap (LIST) at ISOLDE (CERN). The application of the LIST suppresses the usually overwhelming background of the isobaric francium isotopes and allows access to heavy thallium isotopes with A⩾ 207. The self-consistent theory of finite Fermi systems based on the energy density functional by Fayans et al. well describes the N dependence of μ for 1/2+ thallium ground states, as well as μ for the 11/2− isomeric states in europium, gold and thallium isotopes. The inclusion of particle-vibration coupling leads to a better agreement between the theory and experiment for μ (Tl g, I π= 1/2+). It is shown that beyond mean-field contributions to μ cannot be neglected at least for thallium isotopes with I π= 1/2+.

Physics Letters B

Semi-visible jets, with a significant contribution to the event's missing transverse momentum, can arise in strongly interacting dark sectors. This results in an event topology where one of the jets can be aligned with the direction of the missing transverse momentum. The first search for semi-visible jets produced via a t-channel mediator exchange is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collisions with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 and a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the ATLAS detector during the Run 2 of the LHC. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed. Assuming a coupling strength of unity between the mediator, a Standard Model quark and a dark quark, mediator masses up to 2.7 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. Upper limits on the coupling strength are also derived.

Physics Letters B

The inclusive top-quark-pair production cross section σ t t¯ and its ratio to the Z-boson production cross section have been measured in proton–proton collisions at s= 13.6 TeV, using 29 fb− 1 of data collected in 2022 with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Using events with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair and b-tagged jets, and assuming Standard Model decays, the top-quark-pair production cross section is measured to be σ t t¯= 850±3 (stat.)±18 (syst.)±20 (lumi.) pb. The ratio of the t t¯ and the Z-boson production cross sections is also measured, where the Z-boson contribution is determined for inclusive e+ e− and μ+ μ− events in a fiducial phase space. The relative uncertainty on the ratio is reduced compared to the t t¯ cross section, thanks to the cancellation of several systematic uncertainties. The result for the ratio, R t t¯/Z= 1.145±0.003 (stat.)±0.021 (syst.)±0.002 (lumi.) is consistent …

Physics Letters B

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.

Physics Letters B

This letter reports the observation of W (ℓ ν) γ γ production in proton-proton collisions. This measurement uses the full Run 2 sample of events recorded at a center-of-mass energy of s= 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb− 1. Events with a leptonically-decaying W boson and at least two photons are considered. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with an observed and expected significance of 5.6 standard deviations. The inclusive fiducial production cross section of W (e ν) γ γ and W (μ ν) γ γ events is measured to be σ fid= 13.8±1.1 (stat)+ 2.1− 2.0 (syst)±0.1 (lumi) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction.