Faculty of Arts and Sciences

A search with the ATLAS detector is presented for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced by vector-boson fusion and decaying to a pair of bottom quarks, using 20.2 fb−1 of LHC proton–proton collision data at √s = 8 TeV. The signal is searched for as a resonance in the invariant mass distribution of a pair of jets containing b-hadrons in vector-boson-fusion candidate events. The yield is measured to be −0.8 ± 2.3 times the Standard Model crosssection for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. The upper limit on the cross-section times the branching ratio is found to be 4.4 times the Standard Model cross-section at the 95% confidence level, consistent with the expected limit value of 5.4 (5.7) in the background-only (Standard Model production) hypothesis.

The W boson angular distribution in events with high transverse momentum jets is measured using data collected by the ATLAS experiment from proton–proton collisions at a centreof mass energy √s = 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. The focus is on the contributions to W + jets processes from real W emission, which is achieved by studying events where a muon is observed close to a high transverse momentum jet. At small angular separations, these contributions are expected to be large. Various theoretical models of this process are compared to the data in terms of the absolute cross-section and the angular distributions of the muon from the leptonic W decay

A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing hadronic jets, missing transverse momentum but no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2015 by the ATLAS experiment in √s = 13 TeV proton–proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation was observed in 3.2 fb−1 of analyzed data. Results are interpreted within simplified models that assume R-parity is conserved and the neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1.51 TeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino octet and the lightest neutralino, assuming the lightest neutralino is massless. For a simplified model involving the strong production of mass-degenerate first and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 1.03 TeV are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino. These limits substantially extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous measurements with the ATLAS detector.

Measurements of the per-event charged-particle yield as a function of the charged-particle transverse momentum and rapidity are performed using p+Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of √sNN = 5.02 TeV. Charged particles are reconstructed over pseudorapidity |η| < 2.3 and transverse momentum between 0.1 GeV and 22 GeV in a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1 µb−1. The results are presented in the form of charged-particle nuclear modification factors, where the p+Pb charged-particle multiplicities are compared between central and peripheral p+Pb collisions as well as to charged-particle cross sections measured in pp collisions. The p+Pb collision centrality is characterized by the total transverse energy measured in −4.9 < η < −3.1, which is in the direction of the outgoing lead beam. Three different estimations of the number of nucleons participating in the p+Pb collision are carried out using the Glauber model and two Glauber–Gribov colour-fluctuation extensions to the Glauber model. The values of the nuclear modification factors are found to vary significantly as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum. A broad peak is observed for all centralities and rapidities in the nuclear modification factors for charged-particle transverse momentum values around 3 GeV. The magnitude of the peak increases for more central collisions as well as rapidity ranges closer to the direction of the outgoing lead nucleus.

The results of a search for new heavy W′ bosons decaying to an electron or muon and a neutrino using proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=13 TeV are presented. The dataset was collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. As no excess of events above the Standard Model prediction is observed, the results are used to set upper limits on the W′ boson cross-section times branching ratio to an electron or muon and a neutrino as a function of the W′ mass. Assuming a W′ boson with the same couplings as the Standard Model W boson, W′ masses below 5.1 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.

Inclusive jet production cross-sections are measured in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The total integrated luminosity of the analysed data set amounts to 20.2 fb−1. Double-differential cross-sections are measured for jets defined by the anti-kt jet clustering algorithm with radius parameters of R=0.4 and R=0.6 and are presented as a function of the jet transverse momentum, in the range between 70 GeV and 2.5 TeV and in six bins of the absolute jet rapidity, between 0 and 3.0. The measured cross-sections are compared to predictions of quantum chromodynamics, calculated at next-to-leading order in perturbation theory, and corrected for non-perturbative and electroweak effects. The level of agreement with predictions, using a selection of different parton distribution functions for the proton, is quantified. Tensions between the data and the theory predictions are observed.

Results of a search for physics beyond the Standard Model in events containing an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. As the number of events observed in data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, is in agreement with the Standard Model expectations, exclusion limits in models where dark-matter candidates are pair-produced are determined. For dark-matter production via an axial-vector or a vector mediator in the s-channel, this search excludes mediator masses below 750-1200 GeV for dark-matter candidate masses below 230-480 GeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the couplings. In an effective theory of dark-matter production, the limits restrict the value of the suppression scale M∗ to be above 790 GeV at 95% confidence level. A limit is also reported on the production of a high-mass scalar resonance by processes beyond the Standard Model, in which the resonance decays to Zγ and the Z boson subsequently decays into neutrinos.

A measurement of b-hadron pair production is presented, based on a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 11.4 fb−1 of proton--proton collisions recorded at s√=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are selected in which a b-hadron is reconstructed in a decay channel containing J/ψ→μμ, and a second b-hadron is reconstructed in a decay channel containing a muon. Results are presented in a fiducial volume defined by kinematic requirements on three muons based on those used in the analysis. The fiducial cross section is measured to be 17.7±0.1(stat.)±2.0(syst.) nb. A number of normalised differential cross sections are also measured, and compared to predictions from the Pythia8, Herwig++, MadGraph5_aMC@NLO+Pythia8 and Sherpa event generators, providing new constraints on heavy flavour production.

A measurement of the splitting scales occuring in the k t jet-clustering algorithm is presented for final states containing a Z boson. The measurement is done using 20.2 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of [Math Processing Error] TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. The measurement is based on chargedparticle track information, which is measured with excellent precision in the p T region relevant for the transition between the perturbative and the non-perturbative regimes. The data distributions are corrected for detector effects, and are found to deviate from state-of-the-art predictions in various regions of the observables.

Inclusive and differential fiducial cross sections of Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions are measured in the H→ZZ∗→4ℓ decay channel. The proton-proton collision data were produced at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. The inclusive fiducial cross section in the H→ZZ∗→4ℓ decay channel is measured to be 3.62 ± 0.50 (stat) +0.25−0.20 (sys) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 2.91 ± 0.13 fb. The cross section is also extrapolated to the total phase space including all Standard Model Higgs boson decays. Several differential fiducial cross sections are measured for observables sensitive to the Higgs boson production and decay, including kinematic distributions of jets produced in association with the Higgs boson. Good agreement is found between data and Standard Model predictions. The results are used to put constraints on anomalous Higgs boson interactions with Standard Model particles, using the pseudo-observable extension to the kappa-framework.