Dark matter (DM) simplified models are by now commonly used by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations to interpret searches for missing transverse energy ($E_T^\mathrm{miss}$). The coherent use of these models sharpened the LHC DM search program, especially in the presentation of its results and their comparison to DM direct-detection (DD) and indirect-detection (ID) experiments. However, the community has been aware of the limitations of the DM simplified models, in particular the lack of theoretical consistency of some of them and their restricted phenomenology leading to the relevance of only a small subset of $E_T^\mathrm{miss}$ signatures. This document from the LHC Dark Matter Working Group identifies an example of a next-generation DM model, called $\textrm{2HDM+a}$, that provides the simplest theoretically consistent extension of the DM pseudoscalar simplified model. A~comprehensive study of the phenomenology of the $\textrm{2HDM+a}$ model is presented, including a discussion of the rich and intricate pattern of mono-$X$ signatures and the relevance of other DM as well as non-DM experiments. Based on our discussions, a set of recommended scans are proposed to explore the parameter space of the $\textrm{2HDM+a}$ model through LHC searches. The exclusion limits obtained from the proposed scans can be consistently compared to the constraints on the $\textrm{2HDM+a}$ model that derive from DD, ID and the DM relic density.

© 2018 CERN. Flavor-changing neutral currents are not present in the Standard Model at tree level and are suppressed in loop processes by the unitarity of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix; the corresponding rates for top quark decay processes are experimentally unobservable. Extensions of the Standard Model can generate new flavor-changing neutral current processes, leading to signals which, if observed, would be unambiguous evidence of new interactions. A data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb-1 of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of s=13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used to search for top quarks decaying to up or charm quarks with the emission of a Higgs boson, with subsequent Higgs boson decay to final states with at least one electron or muon. No signal is observed and limits on the branching fractions B(t→Hc)<0.16% and B(t→Hu)<0.19% at 95% confidence level are obtained (with expected limits of 0.15% in both cases).

© 2018, CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration. The elliptic flow of prompt and non-prompt J/ ψ was measured in the dimuon decay channel in Pb+Pb collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV with an integrated luminosity of 0.42nb-1 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The prompt and non-prompt signals are separated using a two-dimensional simultaneous fit of the invariant mass and pseudo-proper decay time of the dimuon system from the J/ ψ decay. The measurement is performed in the kinematic range of dimuon transverse momentum and rapidity 9 < pT< 30 GeV , | y| < 2 , and 0–60%25 collision centrality. The elliptic flow coefficient, v2, is evaluated relative to the event plane and the results are presented as a function of transverse momentum, rapidity and centrality. It is found that prompt and non-prompt J/ ψ mesons have non-zero elliptic flow. Prompt J/ ψv2 decreases as a function of pT, while for non-prompt J/ ψ it is, with limited statistical significance, consistent with a flat behaviour over the studied kinematic region. There is no observed dependence on rapidity or centrality.

© 2018 CERN. A search for the bb decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson produced through vector-boson fusion is presented. Three mutually exclusive channels are considered: two all-hadronic channels and a photon-associated channel. Results are reported from the analysis of up to 30.6 fb-1 of pp data at s=13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measured signal strength relative to the Standard Model prediction from the combined analysis is 2.5-1.3+1.4 for inclusive Higgs boson production and 3.0-1.6+1.7 for vector-boson fusion production only.

© 2018, The Author(s). A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of spin-zero particles, H → aa, where the a-boson decay sin to b-quarks promptly or with a mean proper lifetime cτa up to 6 mm and has a mass in the range of 20–60 GeV, is presented. The search is performed in events where the Higgs boson is produced in association with a W or Z boson, giving rise to a signature of one or two charged leptons (electrons or muons) and multiple jets from b-quark decays. The analysis is based on the dataset of proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb−1. No significant excess of events above the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and 95% confidence-level upper limits are derived for the production cross-sections for pp → WH, ZH and their combination, times the branching ratio of the decay chain H → aa → 4b. For a-bosons which decay promptly, the upper limit on the combination of cross-sections for WH and ZH times the branching ratio of H → aa → 4b ranges from 3.0 pb for ma = 20 GeV to 1.3 pb for ma = 60 GeV, assuming that the ratio of WH to ZH cross-sections follows the Standard Model prediction. For a-bosons with longer proper lifetimes, the most stringent limits are 1.8 pb and 0.68 pb, respectively, at cτa ∼ 0.4 mm.[Figure not available: see fulltext.].

© 2018, The Author(s). A search is presented for the pair production of heavy vector-like B quarks, primarily targeting B quark decays into a W boson and a top quark. The search is based on 36.1 fb−1 of pp collisions at s=13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by a high-transverse-momentum isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum, and multiple jets, of which at least one is b-tagged. No significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. The 95% confidence level lower limit on the B mass is 1350 GeV assuming a 100% branching ratio to Wt. In the SU(2) singlet scenario, the lower mass limit is 1170 GeV. The 100% branching ratio limits are found to be also applicable to heavy vector-like X production, with charge +5/3, that decay into Wt. This search is also sensitive to a heavy vector-like B quark decaying into other final states (Zb and Hb) and thus mass limits on B production are set as a function of the decay branching ratios.[Figure not available: see fulltext.].

© 2018 The Author A measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the ZZ→4ℓ and ZZ→2ℓ2ν decay channels, where ℓ stands for either an electron or a muon, is performed using data from proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s=13 TeV. The data were collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2015 and 2016 at the Large Hadron Collider, and they correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1fb−1. An observed (expected) upper limit on the off-shell Higgs signal strength, defined as the event yield normalised to the Standard Model prediction, of 3.8 (3.4) is obtained at 95% confidence level (CL). Assuming the ratio of the Higgs boson couplings to the Standard Model predictions is independent of the momentum transfer of the Higgs production mechanism considered in the analysis, a combination with the on-shell signal-strength measurements yields an observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 14.4 (15.2) MeV.

© 2018 CERN. This Letter presents a normalized differential cross-section measurement in a fiducial phase-space region where interference effects between top-quark pair production and associated production of a single top quark with a W boson and a b-quark are significant. Events with exactly two leptons (ee, μμ, or eμ) and two b-tagged jets that satisfy a multiparticle invariant mass requirement are selected from 36.1 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data taken at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. The results are compared with predictions from simulations using various strategies for the interference. The standard prescriptions for interference modeling are significantly different from each other but are within 2σ of the data. State-of-the-art predictions that naturally incorporate interference effects provide the best description of the data in the measured region of phase space most sensitive to these effects. These results provide an important constraint on interference models and will guide future model development and tuning.

© 2018, The Author(s). Charged Higgs bosons produced either in top-quark decays or in association with a top-quark, subsequently decaying via H± → τ±ντ, are searched for in 36.1 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at s=13 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. Depending on whether the top-quark produced together with H± decays hadronically or leptonically, the search targets τ+jets and τ+lepton final states, in both cases with a hadronically decaying τ-lepton. No evidence of a charged Higgs boson is found. For the mass range of mH± = 90–2000 GeV, upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the production cross-section of the charged Higgs boson times the branching fraction ℬ (H±→ τ±ντ) in the range 4.2–0.0025 pb. In the mass range 90–160 GeV, assuming the Standard Model cross-section for tt¯ production, this corresponds to upper limits between 0.25% and 0.031% for the branching fraction ℬ(t→bH±)×ℬ(H±→τ±ντ).[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

©2018 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration. Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. This paper presents a measurement of jet fragmentation functions in 0.49 nb-1 of Pb+Pb collisions and 25 pb-1 of pp collisions at sNN=5.02 TeV collected in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. These measurements provide insight into the jet quenching process in the quark-gluon plasma created in the aftermath of ultrarelativistic collisions between two nuclei. The modifications to the jet fragmentation functions are quantified by dividing the measurements in Pb+Pb collisions by baseline measurements in pp collisions. This ratio is studied as a function of the transverse momentum of the jet, the jet rapidity, and the centrality of the collision. In both collision systems, the jet fragmentation functions are measured for jets with transverse momentum between 126 and 398 GeV and with an absolute value of jet rapidity less than 2.1. An enhancement of particles carrying a small fraction of the jet momentum is observed, which increases with centrality and with increasing jet transverse momentum. Yields of particles carrying a very large fraction of the jet momentum are also observed to be enhanced. Between these two enhancements of the fragmentation functions a suppression of particles carrying an intermediate fraction of the jet momentum is observed in Pb+Pb collisions. A small dependence of the modifications on jet rapidity is observed.