Professor Daniela Bortoletto

Abstract:

A search is presented for flavour-changing neutral-current interactions involving the top quark, the Higgs boson and an up-type quark (q=u, c) with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis considers leptonic decays of the top quark along with Higgs boson decays into two W bosons, two Z bosons or a τ+τ- pair. It focuses on final states containing either two leptons (electrons or muons) of the same charge or three leptons. The considered processes are tt¯ and Ht production. For the tt¯ production, one top quark decays via t→Hq. The proton–proton collision data set analysed amounts to (140fb-1) at (s=13TeV). No significant excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed and upper limits are set on the t→Hq branching ratios at 95 % confidence level, amounting to observed (expected) limits of B(t→Hu)<2.8(3.0)×10-4 and B(t→Hc)<3.3(3.8)×10-4. Combining this search with other searches for tHq flavour-changing neutral-current interactions previously conducted by ATLAS, considering H→bb¯ and H→γγ decays, as well as H→τ+τ- decays with one or two hadronically decaying τ-leptons, yields observed (expected) upper limits on the branching ratios of B(t→Hu)<2.6(1.8)×10-4 and B(t→Hc)<3.4(2.3)×10-4.

Abstract:

This paper presents a search for top-squark pair production in final states with a top quark, a charm quark and missing transverse momentum. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector during LHC Run 2 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV. The analysis is motivated by an extended Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model featuring a non-minimal flavour violation in the second- and third-generation squark sector. The top squark in this model has two possible decay modes, either t~1→cχ~10 or t~1→tχ~10, where the χ~10 is undetected. The analysis is optimised assuming that both of the decay modes are equally probable, leading to the most likely final state of tc+ETmiss. Good agreement is found between the Standard Model expectation and the data in the search regions. Exclusion limits at 95% CL are obtained in the mt~1 vs. mχ~10 plane and, in addition, limits on the branching ratio of the t~1→tχ~10 decay as a function of m(t~1) are also produced. Top-squark masses of up to 800 GeV are excluded for scenarios with light neutralinos, and top-squark masses up to 600 GeV are excluded in scenarios where the neutralino and the top squark are almost mass degenerate.

Abstract:

A measurement of the production of W bosons with opposite electric charges in association with two jets is presented based on 140 fb−1 of data collected by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV. The analysis is sensitive to the scattering of W bosons, which is of particular interest in the ATLAS physics programme as it can be used to probe the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism of the Standard Model. This signal is observed with a significance of 7.1 standard deviations above the background expectation, while 6.2 standard deviations were expected. The measured cross-section is determined in a signal-enriched fiducial volume and is found to be 2.7 ± 0.5 fb, which is consistent with the theoretical prediction of 2.20−0.13+0.14 fb.