Person:

Morii, Masahiro

This Letter presents a search for new resonances with mass larger than 250 GeV, decaying to a Z boson and a photon. The dataset consists of an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1 of pp collisions collected at √ s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The Z bosons are identified through their decays either to charged, light, lepton pairs (e +e−, µ+µ−) or to hadrons. The data are found to be consistent with the expected background in the whole mass range investigated and upper limits are set on the production cross section times decay branching ratio to Zγ of a narrow scalar boson with mass between 250 GeV and 2.75 TeV.

Correlations of two flow harmonics vn and vm via three- and four-particle cumulants are measured in 13 TeV pp, 5.02 TeV p+Pb, and 2.76 TeV peripheral Pb+Pb collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The goal is to understand the multi-particle nature of the long-range collective phenomenon in these collision systems. The large non-flow background from dijet production present in the standard cumulant method is suppressed using a method of subevent cumulants involving two, three and four subevents separated in pseudorapidity. The results show a negative correlation between v2 and v3 and a positive correlation between v2 and v4 for all collision systems and over the full multiplicity range. However, the magnitudes of the correlations are found to depend on the event multiplicity, the choice of transverse momentum range and collision system. The relative correlation strength, obtained by normalisation of the cumulants with the ⟨vn2⟩ from a two-particle correlation analysis, is similar in the three collision systems and depends weakly on the event multiplicity and transverse momentum. These results based on the subevent methods provide strong evidence of a similar long-range multi-particle collectivity in pp, p+Pb and peripheral Pb+Pb collisions.

Higgs boson production cross-sections in proton–proton collisions are measured in the H→W W ∗→eνμν 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 product of the H → W W ∗ branching fraction times the gluon–gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion cross-sections are measured to be 11.4+1.2(stat.)+1.8(syst.) pb and −1.1 −1.7 0.50+0.24 (stat.) ± 0.17(syst.) pb, respectively, in agreement with Standard Model predictions.

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton–proton col- lisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti-kt algorithm with radius parameter R = 0.4 and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon–jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon–jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from Sherpa and Pythia as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from Jetphox and Sherpa are compared to the measurements.

A search for new phenomena in final states characterized by high jet multiplicity, an isolated lepton (electron or muon) and either zero or at least three b-tagged jets is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb−1 of s√ = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. The dominant sources of background are estimated using parameterized extrapolations, based on observables at medium jet multiplicity, to predict the b-tagged jet multiplicity distribution at the higher jet multiplicities used in the search. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is observed and 95% confidence-level limits are extracted constraining four simplified models of R-parity-violating supersymmetry that feature either gluino or top-squark pair production. The exclusion limits reach as high as 2.1 TeV in gluino mass and 1.2 TeV in top-squark mass in the models considered. In addition, an upper limit is set on the cross-section for Standard Model tt¯tt¯ production of 60 fb (6.5 × the Standard Model prediction) at 95% confidence level. Finally, model-independent limits are set on the contribution from new phenomena to the signal-region yields.

A search for supersymmetry involving the pair production of gluinos decaying via third- generation squarks into the lightest neutralino (χ ̃01) is reported. It uses LHC proton–proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy √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 χ ̃01 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.

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses proton–proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are required to have at least one jet with a transverse momentum above 250 GeV and no leptons (e or μ). Several signal regions are considered with increasing requirements on the missing transverse momentum above 250 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model predictions. The results are translated into ex- clusion limits in models with pair-produced weakly interacting dark-matter candidates, large extra spatial dimensions, and supersymmetric particles in several compressed scenarios.

This paper presents a measurement of the W boson production cross section and the W+/W− cross-section ratio, both in association with jets, in proton–proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in final states containing one electron and missing transverse momentum using data corres- ponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb−1. Differential cross sections for events with at least one or two jets are presented for a range of observables, including jet transverse mo- menta and rapidities, the scalar sum of transverse momenta of the visible particles and the missing transverse momentum in the event, and the transverse momentum of the W boson. For a subset of the observables, the differential cross sections of positively and negatively charged W bosons are measured separately. In the cross-section ratio of W+/W− the dom- inant systematic uncertainties cancel out, improving the measurement precision by up to a factor of nine. The observables and ratios selected for this paper provide valuable input for the up quark, down quark, and gluon parton distribution functions of the proton.

This Letter presents the measurement of differential cross sections of isolated prompt photons produced in association with a b-jet or a c-jet. These final states provide sensitivity to the heavy-flavour content of the proton and aspects related to the modelling of heavy-flavour quarks in perturbative QCD. The measurement uses proton–proton collision data at a centre- of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 20.2 fb−1. The differential cross sections are measured for each jet flavour with respect to the transverse energy of the leading photon in two photon pseudorapidity regions: |ηγ | < 1.37 and 1.56 < |ηγ | < 2.37. The measurement covers photon transverse energies 25 < ETγ < 400 GeV and 25 < ETγ < 350 GeV respectively for the two |ηγ | regions. For each jet flavour, the ratio of the cross sections in the two |ηγ | regions is also measured. The measurement is corrected for detector effects and compared to leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations, based on various treatments and assumptions about the heavy-flavour content of the proton. Overall, the predictions agree well with the measurement, but some deviations are observed at high photon transverse energies. The total uncertainty in the measurement ranges between 13% and 66%, while the central γ + b measurement exhibits the smallest uncertainty, ranging from 13% to 27%, which is comparable to the precision of the theoretical predictions.