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In the Amazon basin, particles containing mixed sodium salts are routinely observed and are attributed to marine aerosols transported from the Atlantic Ocean. Using chemical imaging analysis, we show that, during the wet season, fungal spores emitted by the forest biosphere contribute at least 30% (by number) to sodium salt particles in the central Amazon basin. Hydration experiments indicate that sodium content in fungal spores governs their growth factors. Modeling results suggest that fungal spores account for ~69% (31–95%) of the total sodium mass during the wet season and that their fractional contribution increases during nighttime. Contrary to common assumptions that sodium-containing aerosols originate primarily from marine sources, our results suggest that locally-emitted fungal spores contribute substantially to the number and mass of coarse particles containing sodium. Hence, their role in cloud formation and contribution to salt cycles and the terrestrial ecosystem in the Amazon basin warrant further consideration.
Reinforcing hydrogels with micro-fibre scaffolds obtained by a Melt-Electrospinning Writing (MEW) process has demonstrated great promise for developing tissue engineered (TE) constructs with mechanical properties compatible to native tissues. However, the mechanical performance and reinforcement mechanism of the micro-fibre reinforced hydrogels is not yet fully understood. In this study, FE models, implementing material properties measured experimentally, were used to explore the reinforcement mechanism of fibre-hydrogel composites. First, a continuum FE model based on idealized scaffold geometry was used to capture reinforcement effects related to the suppression of lateral gel expansion by the scaffold, while a second micro-FE model based on micro-CT images of the real construct geometry during compaction captured the effects of load transfer through the scaffold interconnections. Results demonstrate that the reinforcement mechanism at higher scaffold volume fractions was dominated by the load carrying-ability of the fibre scaffold interconnections, which was much higher than expected based on testing scaffolds alone because the hydrogel provides resistance against buckling of the scaffold. We propose that the theoretical understanding presented in this work will assist the design of more effective composite constructs with potential applications in a wide range of TE conditions.
While our knowledge about the roles of microbes and viruses in the ocean has increased tremendously due to recent advances in genomics and metagenomics, research on marine microbial eukaryotes and zooplankton has benefited much less from these new technologies because of their larger genomes, their enormous diversity, and largely unexplored physiologies. Here, we use a metatranscriptomics approach to capture expressed genes in open ocean Tara Oceans stations across four organismal size fractions. The individual sequence reads cluster into 116 million unigenes representing the largest reference collection of eukaryotic transcripts from any single biome. The catalog is used to unveil functions expressed by eukaryotic marine plankton, and to assess their functional biogeography. Almost half of the sequences have no similarity with known proteins, and a great number belong to new gene families with a restricted distribution in the ocean. Overall, the resource provides the foundations for exploring the roles of marine eukaryotes in ocean ecology and biogeochemistry.
HyphaTracker: An ImageJ toolbox for time-resolved analysis of spore germination in filamentous fungi
(2018)
The dynamics of early fungal development and its interference with physiological signals and environmental factors is yet poorly understood. Especially computational analysis tools for the evaluation of the process of early spore germination and germ tube formation are still lacking. For the time-resolved analysis of conidia germination of the filamentous ascomycete Fusarium fujikuroi we developed a straightforward toolbox implemented in ImageJ. It allows for processing of microscopic acquisitions (movies) of conidial germination starting with drift correction and data reduction prior to germling analysis. From the image time series germling related region of interests (ROIs) are extracted, which are analysed for their area, circularity, and timing. ROIs originating from germlings crossing other hyphae or the image boundaries are omitted during analysis. Each conidium/hypha is identified and related to its origin, thus allowing subsequent categorization. The efficiency of HyphaTracker was proofed and the accuracy was tested on simulated germlings at different signal-to-noise ratios. Bright-field microscopic images of conidial germination of rhodopsin-deficient F. fujikuroi mutants and their respective control strains were analysed with HyphaTracker. Consistent with our observation in earlier studies the CarO deficient mutant germinated earlier and grew faster than other, CarO expressing strains.
Metabolic conversion of CI-1040 turns a cellular MEK-inhibitor into an antibacterial compound
(2018)
Influenza virus (IV) infections cause severe respiratory illnesses that can be complicated by bacterial super-infections. Previously, we identified the cellular Raf-MEK-ERK cascade as a promising antiviral target. Inhibitors of MEK, such as CI-1040, showed potent antiviral activity. However, it remained unclear if this inhibitor and its active form, ATR-002, might sensitize host cells to either IV or secondary bacterial infections. To address these questions, we studied the anti-pathogen activity of ATR-002 in comparison to CI-1040, particularly, its impact on Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), which is a major cause of IV super-infections. We analysed IV and S. aureus titres in vitro during super-infection in the presence and absence of the drugs and characterized the direct impact of ATR-002 on bacterial growth and phenotypic changes. Importantly, neither CI-1040 nor ATR-002 treatment led to increased bacterial titres during super-infection, indicating that the drug does not sensitize cells for bacterial infection. In contrast, we rather observed reduced bacterial titres in presence of ATR-002. Surprisingly, ATR-002 also led to reduced bacterial growth in suspension cultures, reduced stress- and antibiotic tolerance without resistance induction. Our data identified for the first time that a particular MEK-inhibitor metabolite exhibits direct antibacterial activity, which is likely due to interference with the bacterial PknB kinase/Stp phosphatase signalling system.
TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis (TWEAK) and inhibition of protein synthesis with cycloheximide (CHX) sensitize for poly(I:C)-induced cell death. Notably, although CHX preferentially enhanced poly(I:C)-induced apoptosis, TWEAK enhanced primarily poly(I:C)-induced necroptosis. Both sensitizers of poly(I:C)-induced cell death, however, showed no major effect on proinflammatory poly(I:C) signaling. Analysis of a panel of HeLa-RIPK3 variants lacking TRADD, RIPK1, FADD, or caspase-8 expression revealed furthermore similarities and differences in the way how poly(I:C)/TWEAK, TNF, and TRAIL utilize these molecules for signaling. RIPK1 turned out to be essential for poly(I:C)/TWEAK-induced caspase-8-mediated apoptosis but was dispensable for this response in TNF and TRAIL signaling. TRADD-RIPK1-double deficiency differentially affected poly(I:C)-triggered gene induction but abrogated gene induction by TNF completely. FADD deficiency abrogated TRAIL- but not TNF- and poly(I:C)-induced necroptosis, whereas TRADD elicited protective activity against all three death inducers. A general protective activity against poly(I:C)-, TRAIL-, and TNF-induced cell death was also observed in FLIPL and FLIPS transfectrants.
Species' functional traits set the blueprint for pair-wise interactions in ecological networks. Yet, it is unknown to what extent the functional diversity of plant and animal communities controls network assembly along environmental gradients in real-world ecosystems. Here we address this question with a unique dataset of mutualistic bird-fruit, bird-flower and insect-flower interaction networks and associated functional traits of 200 plant and 282 animal species sampled along broad climate and land-use gradients on Mt. Kilimanjaro. We show that plant functional diversity is mainly limited by precipitation, while animal functional diversity is primarily limited by temperature. Furthermore, shifts in plant and animal functional diversity along the elevational gradient control the niche breadth and partitioning of the respective other trophic level. These findings reveal that climatic constraints on the functional diversity of either plants or animals determine the relative importance of bottom-up and top-down control in plant-animal interaction networks.
Long-term monitoring of the ANTARES optical module efficiencies using \(^{40}\)K decays in sea water
(2018)
Cherenkov light induced by radioactive decay products is one of the major sources of background light for deep-sea neutrino telescopes such as ANTARES. These decays are at the same time a powerful calibration source. Using data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope from mid 2008 to 2017, the time evolution of the photon detection efficiency of optical modules is studied. A modest loss of only 20% in 9 years is observed. The relative time calibration between adjacent modules is derived as well.
Background
Neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) for early breast cancer can make breast-conserving surgery more feasible and might be more likely to eradicate micrometastatic disease than might the same chemotherapy given after surgery. We investigated the long-term benefits and risks of NACT and the influence of tumour characteristics on outcome with a collaborative meta-analysis of individual patient data from relevant randomised trials.
Methods
We obtained information about prerandomisation tumour characteristics, clinical tumour response, surgery, recurrence, and mortality for 4756 women in ten randomised trials in early breast cancer that began before 2005 and compared NACT with the same chemotherapy given postoperatively. Primary outcomes were tumour response, extent of local therapy, local and distant recurrence, breast cancer death, and overall mortality. Analyses by intention-to-treat used standard regression (for response and frequency of breast-conserving therapy) and log-rank methods (for recurrence and mortality).
Findings
Patients entered the trials from 1983 to 2002 and median follow-up was 9 years (IQR 5-14), with the last follow-up in 2013. Most chemotherapy was anthracycline based (3838 [81%] of 4756 women). More than two thirds (1349 [69%] of 1947) of women allocated NACT had a complete or partial clinical response. Patients allocated NACT had an increased frequency of breast-conserving therapy (1504 [65%] of 2320 treated with NACT vs 1135 [49%] of 2318 treated with adjuvant chemotherapy). NACT was associated with more frequent local recurrence than was adjuvant chemotherapy: the 15 year local recurrence was 21.4% for NACT versus 15.9% for adjuvant chemotherapy (5.5% increase [95% CI 2.4-8.6]; rate ratio 1.37 [95% CI 1.17-1.61]; p = 0.0001). No significant difference between NACT and adjuvant chemotherapy was noted for distant recurrence (15 year risk 38.2% for NACT vs 38.0% for adjuvant chemotherapy; rate ratio 1.02 [95% CI 0.92-1.14]; p = 0.66), breast cancer mortality (34.4% vs 33.7%; 1.06 [0.95-1.18]; p = 0.31), or death from any cause (40.9% vs 41.2%; 1.04 [0.94-1.15]; p = 0.45).
Interpretation
Tumours downsized by NACT might have higher local recurrence after breast-conserving therapy than might tumours of the same dimensions in women who have not received NACT. Strategies to mitigate the increased local recurrence after breast-conserving therapy in tumours downsized by NACT should be considered-eg, careful tumour localisation, detailed pathological assessment, and appropriate radiotherapy. Copyright (c) The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.
The Hamamatsu R12199-023-inch photomultiplier tube is the photodetector chosen for the first phase of the KM3NeT neutrino telescope. About 7000 photomultipliers have been characterised for dark count rate, timing spread and spurious pulses. The quantum efficiency, the gain and the peak-to-valley ratio have also been measured for a sub-sample in order to determine parameter values needed as input to numerical simulations of the detector.
The modular Hamiltonian of reduced states, given essentially by the logarithm of the reduced density matrix, plays an important role within the AdS/CFT correspondence in view of its relation to quantum information. In particular, it is an essential ingredient for quantum information measures of distances between states, such as the relative entropy and the Fisher information metric. However, the modular Hamiltonian is known explicitly only for a few examples. For a family of states rho(lambda) that is parametrized by a scalar lambda, the first order contribution in (lambda) over tilde = lambda-lambda(0) of the modular Hamiltonian to the relative entropy between rho(lambda) and a reference state rho(lambda 0) is completely determined by the entanglement entropy, via the first law of entanglement. For several examples, e.g. for ball-shaped regions in the ground state of CFTs, higher order contributions are known to vanish. In these cases the modular Hamiltonian contributes to the Fisher information metric in a trivial way. We investigate under which conditions the modular Hamiltonian provides a non-trivial contribution to the Fisher information metric, i.e. when the contribution of the modular Hamiltonian to the relative entropy is of higher order in (lambda) over tilde. We consider one-parameter families of reduced states on two entangling regions that form an entanglement plateau, i.e. the entanglement entropies of the two regions saturate the Araki-Lieb inequality. We show that in general, at least one of the relative entropies of the two entangling regions is expected to involve (lambda) over tilde contributions of higher order from the modular Hamiltonian. Furthermore, we consider the implications of this observation for prominent AdS/CFT examples that form entanglement plateaux in the large N limit.
Background
Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) is often accompanied by pathomorphological changes to the temporomandibular joint (TMJ). By analyzing orthodontical orthopantomograms of JIA patients the aims of the study were a) classification of condyle changes, b) quantification of bony asymmetries of condylar destruction and c) detection of relationships between disease duration and TMJ-involvement.
Patients/Methods
46 caucasian JIA-patients (28 female; 18 male; < 16.0 years) were enrolled, each joint (n = 92) was morphologically assessed by means of orthopantomogram, quantitatively analysed and compared with duration of general disease. Condyle morphology was assessed using the Billiau scale for severity of destruction [1]. The quantitative analysis was based on ratios of condyle, ramus and mandible height.
Results
Patients were divided into groups (Group I – slightly affected, n = 36; Billiau severity 0–2; condyle findings: X-ray normal, condyle erosions, condylar flattening; Group II – severely affected, N = 10; Billiau severity 3–4; condyle findings: condylar flattenings and erosions, unilateral/bilateral complete loss of condyles), based on morphological analysis of condylar destruction. Duration of disease was significantly longer in Group II (8.9 ± 5.2 years) than in Group I (4.6 ± 4.7 years). Asymmetries of condyle, ramus and mandible height, quantitatively analysed by contralateral comparison, were significantly more marked in patients of Group II than of Group I.
Conclusions
Orthopantomogram imaging can be used in orthodontics clinical routine to detect TMJ-pathologies and is an important reference for monitoring progression of JIA. Classification into severe and slightly affected TMJ is possible by analysis of condylar pathomorphology. An association between degree of destruction, extent of lower jaw asymmetry and disease duration is suggested by the results.
Background
With upcoming therapeutic interventions for patients with primary progressive aphasia (PPA), instruments for the follow-up of patients are needed to describe disease progression and to evaluate potential therapeutic effects. So far, volumetric brain changes have been proposed as clinical endpoints in the literature, but cognitive scores are still lacking. This study followed disease progression predominantly in language-based performance within 1 year and defined a PPA sum score which can be used in therapeutic interventions.
Methods
We assessed 28 patients with nonfluent variant PPA, 17 with semantic variant PPA, 13 with logopenic variant PPA, and 28 healthy controls in detail for 1 year. The most informative neuropsychological assessments were combined to a sum score, and associations between brain atrophy were investigated followed by a sample size calculation for clinical trials.
Results
Significant absolute changes up to 20% in cognitive tests were found after 1 year. Semantic and phonemic word fluency, Boston Naming Test, Digit Span, Token Test, AAT Written language, and Cookie Test were identified as the best markers for disease progression. These tasks provide the basis of a new PPA sum score. Assuming a therapeutic effect of 50% reduction in cognitive decline for sample size calculations, a number of 56 cases is needed to find a significant treatment effect. Correlations between cognitive decline and atrophy showed a correlation up to r = 0.7 between the sum score and frontal structures, namely the superior and inferior frontal gyrus, as well as with left-sided subcortical structures.
Conclusion
Our findings support the high performance of the proposed sum score in the follow-up of PPA and recommend it as an outcome measure in intervention studies.
Background
The intent of this pooled analysis as part of the German society for radiation oncology (DEGRO) stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) initiative was to analyze the patterns of care of SBRT for liver oligometastases and to derive factors influencing treated metastases control and overall survival in a large patient cohort.
Methods
From 17 German and Swiss centers, data on all patients treated for liver oligometastases with SBRT since its introduction in 1997 has been collected and entered into a centralized database. In addition to patient and tumor characteristics, data on immobilization, image guidance and motion management as well as dose prescription and fractionation has been gathered. Besides dose response and survival statistics, time trends of the aforementioned variables have been investigated.
Results
In total, 474 patients with 623 liver oligometastases (median 1 lesion/patient; range 1–4) have been collected from 1997 until 2015. Predominant histologies were colorectal cancer (n = 213 pts.; 300 lesions) and breast cancer (n = 57; 81 lesions). All centers employed an SBRT specific setup. Initially, stereotactic coordinates and CT simulation were used for treatment set-up (55%), but eventually were replaced by CBCT guidance (28%) or more recently robotic tracking (17%). High variance in fraction (fx) number (median 1 fx; range 1–13) and dose per fraction (median: 18.5 Gy; range 3–37.5 Gy) was observed, although median BED remained consistently high after an initial learning curve. Median follow-up time was 15 months; median overall survival after SBRT was 24 months. One- and 2-year treated metastases control rate of treated lesions was 77% and 64%; if maximum isocenter biological equivalent dose (BED) was greater than 150 Gy EQD2Gy, it increased to 83% and 70%, respectively. Besides radiation dose colorectal and breast histology and motion management methods were associated with improved treated metastases control.
Conclusion
After an initial learning curve with regards to total cumulative doses, consistently high biologically effective doses have been employed translating into high local tumor control at 1 and 2 years. The true impact of histology and motion management method on treated metastases control deserve deeper analysis. Overall survival is mainly influenced by histology and metastatic tumor burden.
Background
Disentangling the etiology of common, complex diseases is a major challenge in genetic research. For bipolar disorder (BD), several genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been performed. Similar to other complex disorders, major breakthroughs in explaining the high heritability of BD through GWAS have remained elusive. To overcome this dilemma, genetic research into BD, has embraced a variety of strategies such as the formation of large consortia to increase sample size and sequencing approaches. Here we advocate a complementary approach making use of already existing GWAS data: a novel data mining procedure to identify yet undetected genotype–phenotype relationships. We adapted association rule mining, a data mining technique traditionally used in retail market research, to identify frequent and characteristic genotype patterns showing strong associations to phenotype clusters. We applied this strategy to three independent GWAS datasets from 2835 phenotypically characterized patients with BD. In a discovery step, 20,882 candidate association rules were extracted.
Results
Two of these rules—one associated with eating disorder and the other with anxiety—remained significant in an independent dataset after robust correction for multiple testing. Both showed considerable effect sizes (odds ratio ~ 3.4 and 3.0, respectively) and support previously reported molecular biological findings.
Conclusion
Our approach detected novel specific genotype–phenotype relationships in BD that were missed by standard analyses like GWAS. While we developed and applied our method within the context of BD gene discovery, it may facilitate identifying highly specific genotype–phenotype relationships in subsets of genome-wide data sets of other complex phenotype with similar epidemiological properties and challenges to gene discovery efforts.
Background
Gut microbes influence their hosts in many ways, in particular by modulating the impact of diet. These effects have been studied most extensively in humans and mice. In this work, we used whole genome metagenomics to investigate the relationship between the gut metagenomes of dogs, humans, mice, and pigs.
Results
We present a dog gut microbiome gene catalog containing 1,247,405 genes (based on 129 metagenomes and a total of 1.9 terabasepairs of sequencing data). Based on this catalog and taxonomic abundance profiling, we show that the dog microbiome is closer to the human microbiome than the microbiome of either pigs or mice. To investigate this similarity in terms of response to dietary changes, we report on a randomized intervention with two diets (high-protein/low-carbohydrate vs. lower protein/higher carbohydrate). We show that diet has a large and reproducible effect on the dog microbiome, independent of breed or sex. Moreover, the responses were in agreement with those observed in previous human studies.
Conclusions
We conclude that findings in dogs may be predictive of human microbiome results. In particular, a novel finding is that overweight or obese dogs experience larger compositional shifts than lean dogs in response to a high-protein diet.
Inter-comparison of quantitative imaging of lutetium-177 (\(^{177}\)Lu) in European hospitals
(2018)
Background
This inter-comparison exercise was performed to demonstrate the variability of quantitative SPECT/CT imaging for lutetium-177 (\(^{177}\)Lu) in current clinical practice. Our aim was to assess the feasibility of using international inter-comparison exercises as a means to ensure consistency between clinical sites whilst enabling the sites to use their own choice of quantitative imaging protocols, specific to their systems.
Dual-compartment concentric spherical sources of accurately known activity concentrations were prepared and sent to seven European clinical sites. The site staff were not aware of the true volumes or activity within the sources—they performed SPECT/CT imaging of the source, positioned within a water-filled phantom, using their own choice of parameters and reported their estimate of the activities within the source.
Results
The volumes reported by the participants for the inner section of the source were all within 29% of the true value and within 60% of the true value for the outer section. The activities reported by the participants for the inner section of the source were all within 20% of the true value, whilst those reported for the outer section were up to 83% different to the true value.
Conclusions
A variety of calibration and segmentation methods were used by the participants for this exercise which demonstrated the variability of quantitative imaging across clinical sites. This paper presents a method to assess consistency between sites using different calibration and segmentation methods.
Abstract
Despite multidisciplinary local and systemic therapeutic approaches, the prognosis for most patients with brain metastases is still dismal. The role of adaptive and innate anti-tumor response including the Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) machinery of antigen presentation is still unclear. We present data on the HLA class II-chaperone molecule CD74 in brain metastases and its impact on the HLA peptidome complexity.
We analyzed CD74 and HLA class II expression on tumor cells in a subset of 236 human brain metastases, primary tumors and peripheral metastases of different entities in association with clinical data including overall survival. Additionally, we assessed whole DNA methylome profiles including CD74 promoter methylation and differential methylation in 21 brain metastases. We analyzed the effects of a siRNA mediated CD74 knockdown on HLA-expression and HLA peptidome composition in a brain metastatic melanoma cell line.
We observed that CD74 expression on tumor cells is a strong positive prognostic marker in brain metastasis patients and positively associated with tumor-infiltrating T-lymphocytes (TILs). Whole DNA methylome analysis suggested that CD74 tumor cell expression might be regulated epigenetically via CD74 promoter methylation. CD74\(^{high}\) and TIL\(^{high}\) tumors displayed a differential DNA methylation pattern with highest enrichment scores for antigen processing and presentation. Furthermore, CD74 knockdown in vitro lead to a reduction of HLA class II peptidome complexity, while HLA class I peptidome remained unaffected.
In summary, our results demonstrate that a functional HLA class II processing machinery in brain metastatic tumor cells, reflected by a high expression of CD74 and a complex tumor cell HLA peptidome, seems to be crucial for better patient prognosis.
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: |η γ | < 1.37 and 1.56 < |η γ | < 2.37. The measurement covers photon transverse energies 25 < Eγ T < 400 GeV and 25 < Eγ T < 350 GeV respectively for the two |η γ | regions. For each jet flavour, the ratio of the cross sections in the two |η γ | 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.
This paper presents a direct measurement of the decay width of the top quark using t (t) over bar events in the lepton+jets final state. The data sample was collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1). The decay width of the top quark is measured using a template fit to distributions of kinematic observables associated with the hadronically and semileptonically decaying top quarks. The result, Gamma(t) = 1.76 +/- 0.33 (stat.) (+0.79)(-0.68) (syst.) GeV for a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV, is consistent with the prediction of the Standard Model.
This paper presents a measurement of the polarisation of tau leptons produced in Z/gamma* -> tau tau decays which is performed with a dataset of proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1) recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012. The Z/gamma* -> tau tau decays are reconstructed from a hadronically decaying tau lepton with a single charged particle in the final state, accompanied by a tau lepton that decays leptonically. The tau polarisation is inferred from the relative fraction of energy carried by charged and neutral hadrons in the hadronic tau decays. The polarisation is measured in a fiducial region that corresponds to the kinematic region accessible to this analysis. The tau polarisation extracted over the full phase space within the Z/gamma* mass range of 66 < mZ/gamma* < 116GeVis found to be P-tau = -0.14 +/- 0.02(stat)+/- 0.04(syst). It is in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of Pt = -0.1517 +/- 0.0019, which is obtained from the ALP-GEN event generator interfaced with the PYTHIA 6 parton shower modelling and the TAUOLA tau decay library.
A measurement of off-shell Higgs boson production in the ZZ -> 4l and ZZ -> 2l2v decay channels, where stands for either an electron or a muon, is performed using data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root 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 36.1 fb(-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.
A search is conducted for new resonances decaying into a WW or WZ boson pair, where one W boson decays leptonically and the other W or Z boson decays hadronically. It is based on proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV in 2015 and 2016. The search is sensitive to diboson resonance production via vector-boson fusion as well as quark-antiquark annihilation and gluon-gluon fusion mechanisms. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the Standard Model backgrounds. Several benchmark models are used to interpret the results. Limits on the production cross section are set for a new narrow scalar resonance, a new heavy vector-boson and a spin-2 Kaluza-Klein graviton.
Properties of the Higgs boson are measured in the two-photon final state using 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded at root s = 13 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Cross-section measurements for the production of a Higgs boson through gluon-gluon fusion, vector-boson fusion, and in association with a vector boson or a top-quark pair are reported. The signal strength, defined as the ratio of the observed to the expected signal yield, is measured for each of these production processes as well as inclusively. The global signal strength measurement of 0.99 +/- 0.14 improves on the precision of the ATLAS measurement at root s = 7 and 8 TeV by a factor of two. Measurements of gluon-gluon fusion and vector-boson fusion productions yield signal strengths compatible with the Standard Model prediction. Measurements of simplified template cross sections, designed to quantify the different Higgs boson production processes in specific regions of phase space, are reported. The cross section for the production of the Higgs boson decaying to two isolated photons in a fiducial region closely matching the experimental selection of the photons is measured to be 55 +/- 10 fb, which is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 64 +/- 2 fb. Furthermore, cross sections in fiducial regions enriched in Higgs boson production in vector-boson fusion or in association with large missing transverse momentum, leptons or top-quark pairs are reported. Differential and double-differential measurements are performed for several variables related to the diphoton kinematics as well as the kinematics and multiplicity of the jets produced in association with a Higgs boson. These differential cross sections are sensitive to higher order QCD corrections and properties of the Higgs boson, such as its spin and CP quantum numbers. No significant deviations from a wide array of Standard Model predictions are observed. Finally, the strength and tensor structure of the Higgs boson interactions are investigated using an effective Lagrangian, which introduces additional CP-even and CP-odd interactions. No significant new physics contributions are observed.
Measurements are made of differential cross-sections of highly boosted pair-produced top quarks as a function of top-quark and t (t) over bar system kinematic observables using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events with two large-radius jets in the final state, one with transverse momentum p(T) > 500 GeV and a second with p(T) > 350 GeV, are used for the measurement. The top-quark candidates are separated from the multijet background using jet substructure information and association with a b-tagged jet. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects to a particle-level fiducial phase space and a parton-level limited phase space, and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations by means of calculated chi(2) values. The cross-section for t (t) over bar production in the fiducial phase-space region is 292 +/- 7(stat) +/- 71(syst) tb, to be compared to the theoretical prediction of 384 +/- 36 fb.
A search for supersymmetric partners of top quarks decaying as (t) over tilde (1) -> c (chi) over tilde (0)(1)and supersymmetric partners of charm quarks decaying as (c) over tilde (1) -> c (chi) over tilde (0)(1) where (chi) over tilde (0)(1) is the lightest neutralino, is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider and is performed in final states with jets identified as containing charm hadrons. Assuming a 100% branching ratio to c (chi) over tilde (0)(1), top and charm squarks with masses up to 850 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest neutralino. For m (t) over tilde (1,(c) over tilde1) - m((chi) over tilde 10)< 100 GeV, top and charm squark masses up to 500 GeV are excluded.
Searches for dijet resonances with sub-TeV masses using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider can be statistically limited by the bandwidth available to inclusive single-jet triggers, whose data-collection rates at low transverse momentum are much lower than the rate from standard model multijet production. This Letter describes a new search for dijet resonances where this limitation is overcome by recording only the event information calculated by the jet trigger algorithms, thereby allowing much higher event rates with reduced storage needs. The search targets low-mass dijet resonances in the range 450-1800 GeV. The analyzed data set has an integrated luminosity of up to 29.3 fb(-1) and was recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No excesses are found; limits are set on Gaussian-shaped contributions to the dijet mass distribution from new particles and on a model of dark-matter particles with axial-vector couplings to quarks.
Previous studies have shown that weighted angular moments derived from jet constituents encode the colour connections between partons that seed the jets. This paper presents measurements of two such distributions, the jet-pull angle and jet-pull magnitude, both of which are derived from the jet-pull angular moment. The measurement is performed in delivered by the Large Hadron Collider. The observables are measured for two dijet systems, corresponding to the colour-connected daughters of the Wboson and the two b-jets from the top-quark decays, which are not expected to be colour connected. To allow the comparison of the measured distributions to colour model predictions, the measured distributions are unfolded to particle level, after correcting for experimental effects introduced by the detector. While good agreement can be found for some combinations of predictions and observables, none of the predictions describes the data well across all observables.
A measurement of J/psi and psi(2S) production is presented. It is based on a data sample from Pb+Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV and pp collisions at root s = 5.02 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.42 nb(-1) and 25 pb(-1) in Pb+Pb and pp, respectively. The measurements of per-event yields, nuclear modification factors, and non-prompt fractions are performed in the dimuon decay channel for 9 < p(T)(mu mu) < 40 GeV in dimuon transverse momentum, and -2 < y(mu mu) < 2 in rapidity. Strong suppression is found in Pb+Pb collisions for both prompt and non-prompt J/psi, increasing with event centrality. The suppression of prompt psi(2S) is observed to be stronger than that of J/psi, while the suppression of non-prompt psi(2S) is equal to that of the non-prompt J/psi within uncertainties, consistent with the expectation that both arise from b-quarks propagating through the medium. Despite prompt and non-prompt J/psi arising from different mechanisms, the dependence of their nuclear modification factors on centrality is found to be quite similar.
A search for new phenomena in final states containing an e(+)e(-) or m(+)m(-) pair, jets, and large missing transverse momentum is presented. This analysis makes use of proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), collected during 2015 and 2016 at a centre of-mass energy Os = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search targets the pair production of supersymmetric coloured particles (squarks or gluinos) and their decays into final states containing an e(+)e(-) or m(+)m(-) pair and the lightest neutralino ((c) over tilde (0)(1)) via one of two next-to-lightest neutralino ((c) over tilde (0)(2)) decay mechanisms: (c) over tilde (0)(2) Z (c) over tilde (0)(1), where the Z boson decays leptonically leading to a peak in the dilepton invariant mass distribution around the Z boson mass; and (c) over tilde (0)(2) l(+)1(-) (c) over tilde (0)(1) with no intermediate l(+)l(-) resonance, yielding a kinematic endpoint in the dilepton invariant mass spectrum. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectation. Results are interpreted using simplified models, and exclude gluinos and squarks with masses as large as 1.85 and 1.3 TeV at 95% confidence level, respectively.
The differential cross-section for the production of a W boson in association with a top quark is measured for several particle-level observables. The measurements are performed using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. Differential cross-sections are measured in a fiducial phase space defined by the presence of two charged leptons and exactly one jet matched to a b-hadron, and are normalised with the fiducial cross-section. Results are found to be in good agreement with predictions from several Monte Carlo event generators.
A direct search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a pair of charm quarks is presented. Associated production of the Higgs and Z bosons, in the decay mode ZH -> l(+)l(-) cc is studied. A data set with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is used. The H -> cc signature is identified using charm-tagging algorithms. The observed (expected) upper limit on sigma(pp -> ZH) x B(H -> cc) is 2.7 (3.9(-2.1)(+2.1) ) pb at the 95% confidence level for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, while the standard model value is 26 fb.
Search for a Structure in the B-s(0) π\(^{±}\) Invariant Mass Spectrum with the ATLAS Experiment
(2018)
A search for the narrow structure, X(5568), reported by the DO Collaboration in the decay sequence X -> B-s(0) pi +/-, B-s(0) -> J/psi phi, is presented. The analysis is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC corresponding to 4.9 fb(-1) of pp collisions at 7 TeV and 19.5 fb(-1)at 8 TeV. No significant signal was found. Upper limits on the number of signal events, with properties corresponding to those reported by DO, and on the A production rate relative to B-s(0) mesons, rho x, were determined at 95% confidence level. The results are N(X) < 382 and rho x <0.015 for B-s(0) mesons with transverse momenta above 10 GeV and N(X) < 356 and rho(x) < 0.016 for transverse momenta above 15 GeV. Limits are also set for potential B-s(0) pi(+) resonances in the mass range 5550 to 5700 MeV.
A search for high-mass resonances decaying to tau nu using proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider is presented. Only tau-lepton decays with hadrons in the final state are considered. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No statistically significant excess above the standard model expectation is observed; model-independent upper limits are set on the visible tau nu production cross section. Heavy W' bosons with masses less than 3.7 TeV in the sequential standard model and masses less than 2.2-3.8 TeV depending on the coupling in the nonuniversal Go(221) model are excluded at the 95% credibility level.
A search for pair production of the supersymmetric partners of the Higgs boson (higgsinos (H) over tilde) in gaugemediated scenarios is reported. Each higgsino is assumed to decay to a Higgs boson and a gravitino. Two complementary analyses, targeting high- and low-mass signals, are performed to maximize sensitivity. The two analyses utilize LHC pp collision data at a center-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV, the former with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) and the latter with 24.3 fb(-1), collected with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. The search is performed in events containing missing transverse momentum and several energetic jets, at least three of which must be identified as b-quark jets. No significant excess is found above the predicted background. Limits on the cross section are set as a function of the mass of the <(Hover tilde> in simplified models assuming production via mass-degenerate higgsinos decaying to a Higgs boson and a gravitino. Higgsinos with masses between 130 and 230 GeV and between 290 and 880 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level. Interpretations of the limits in terms of the branching ratio of the higgsino to a Z boson or a Higgs boson are also presented, and a 45% branching ratio to a Higgs boson is excluded for m(<(Hover tilde>) approximate to 400 GeV.
Many extensions of the Standard Model predict new resonances decaying to a Z, W, or Higgs boson and a photon. This paper presents a search for such resonances produced in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The Z/W/H bosons are identified through their decays to hadrons. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectation in the entire investigated mass range. Upper limits are set on the production cross section times branching fraction for resonance decays to Z.W + gamma in the mass range from 1.0 to 6.8 TeV and for the first time into H + gamma in the mass range from 1.0 to 3.0 TeV.
A search for direct pair production of top squarks in final states with two tau leptons, b-jets, and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. Two exclusive channels with either two hadronically decaying tau leptons or one hadronically and one leptonically decaying tau lepton are considered. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed in the data. The analysis results are interpreted in terms of model-independent limits and used to derive exclusion limits on the masses of the top squark (t) over tilde (1) and the tau slepton (tau) over tilde (1) in a simplified model of supersymmetry with a nearly massless gravitino. In this model, masses up to m((t) over tilde (1)) = 1.16 TeV and m ((tau) over tilde (1)) = 1.00 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.
A search is presented for photonic signatures, motivated by generalized models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. This search makes use of proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, and it explores models dominated by both strong and electroweak production of supersymmetric partner states. Experimental signatures incorporating an isolated photon and significant missing transverse momentum are explored. These signatures include events with an additional photon or additional jet activity not associated with any specific underlying quark flavor. No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model prediction, and 95% confidence-level upper limits of between 0.083 and 0.32 fb are set on the visible cross section of contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model. These results are interpreted in terms of lower limits on the masses of gluinos, squarks, and gauginos in the context of generalized models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry, which reach as high as 2.3 TeV for strongly produced and 1.3 TeV for weakly produced supersymmetric partner pairs.
A search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, t(t)overbarH, is presented. The analysis uses 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. The search targets the H -> b(b)overbar decay mode. The selected events contain either one or two electrons or muons from the top-quark decays, and are then categorized according to the number of jets and how likely these are to contain b-hadrons. Multivariate techniques are used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by ft + jets production. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, the ratio of the measured t(t)overbarH signal cross-section to the standard model expectation is found to be mu = 0.84(-0.61)(+0.64). A value of mu greater than 2.0 is excluded at 95% confidence level (C.L.) while the expected upper limit is mu < 1.2 in the absence of a t(t)overbarH signal.
A search for the associated production of the Higgs boson with a top quark pair (tt (b) over barH) is reported. The search is performed in multilepton final states using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy root s = 13 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. Higgs boson decays to WW*, tau tau, and ZZ* are targeted. Seven final states, categorized by the number and flavor of charged-lepton candidates, are examined for the presence of the Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeVand a pair of top quarks. An excess of events over the expected background from Standard Model processes is found with an observed significance of 4.1 standard deviations, compared to an expectation of 2.8 standard deviations. The best fit for the (tt (b) over barH) production cross section is sot (tt (b) over barH) = 790(-210)(+230) fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 507(-50)(+35) fb. The combination of this result with other tt (b) over barH searches from the ATLAS experiment using the Higgs boson decay modes to b (b) over bar, gamma gamma and ZZ* -> 4l, has an observed significance of 4.2 standard deviations, compared to an expectation of 3.8 standard deviations. This provides evidence for the tt (b) over barH production mode.
Results of a search for gluino pair production with subsequent R-parity-violating decays to quarks are presented. This search uses 36.1 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV at the LHC. The analysis is performed using requirements on the number of jets and the number of jets tagged as containing a b-hadron as well as a topological observable formed by the scalar sum of masses of large-radius jets in the event. No significant excess above the expected Standard Model background is observed. Limits are set on the production of gluinos in models with the R-parity-violating decays of either the gluino itself (direct decay) or the neutralino produced in the R-parity-conserving gluino decay (cascade decay). In the gluino cascade decay model, gluino masses below 1850 GeV are excluded for 1000 GeV neutralino mass. For the gluino direct decay model, the 95% confidence level upper limit on the cross section times branching ratio varies between 0.80 fb at m((g) over tilde) = 900 GeV and 0.011 fb at m((g) over tilde) = 1800 GeV. (c) 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.
The mass of the Higgs boson is measured in the H -> ZZ* -> 4l and in the H -> gamma gamma decay channels with 36.1 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. The measured value in the H -> ZZ* -> 4l channel is m(H)(ZZ*) = 124.79 +/- 0.37 GeV, while the measured value in the H -> gamma gamma channel is m(H)(gamma gamma) = 124.93 +/- 0.40 GeV. Combining these results with the ATLAS measurement based on 7 and 8 TeV proton-proton collision data yields a Higgs boson mass of m(H) = 124.97 +/- 0.24 GeV. (c) 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.
A search for a heavy neutral Higgs boson, A, decaying into a Z boson and another heavy Higgs boson, H, is performed using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) from proton-proton collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search considers the Z boson decaying to electrons or muons and the H boson into a pair of b-quarks. No evidence for the production of an A boson is found. Considering each production process separately, the 95% confidence-level upper limits on the pp -> A -> ZH production cross-section times the branching ratio H -> bb are in the range of 14-830 fb for the gluon-gluon fusion process and 26-570 fb for the b-associated process for the mass ranges 130-700 GeV of the H boson and 230-800 GeV of the A boson. The results are interpreted in the context of two-Higgs-doublet models. (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP(3).
This Letter presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of new (pseudo) scalar particles, H -> aa, where the a particle has a mass in the range 20-60 GeV, and where one of the a bosons decays into a pair of photons and the other to a pair of gluons. The search is performed in event samples enhanced in vector-boson fusion Higgs boson production by requiring two jets with large invariant mass in addition to the Higgs boson candidate decay products. The analysis is based on the full dataset of pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.7 fb(-1). The data are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions and an upper limit at the 95% confidence level is placed on the production cross section times the branching ratio for the decay H -> aa -> gamma gamma gg. This limit ranges from 3.1 pb to 9.0 pb depending on the mass of the a boson. (C) 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.
A measurement of the production of three isolated photons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 8 TeV is reported. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The differential cross sections are measured as functions of the transverse energy of each photon, the difference in azimuthal angle and in pseudorapidity between pairs of photons, the invariant mass of pairs of photons, and the invariant mass of the triphoton system. A measurement of the inclusive fiducial cross section is also reported. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements. The predictions underestimate the measurement of the inclusive fiducial cross section and the differential measurements at low photon transverse energies and invariant masses. They provide adequate descriptions of the measurements at high values of the photon transverse energies, invariant mass of pairs of photons, and invariant mass of the triphoton system. (C) 2018 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Measurements of di ff erential cross sections of top quark pair production in association with jets by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are presented. The measurements are performed as functions of the top quark transverse momentum, the transverse momentum of the top quark-antitop quark system and the out-of-plane transverse momentum using data from pp collisions at p s = 13TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb. The top quark pair events are selected in the lepton (electron or muon) + jets channel. The measured cross sections, which are compared to several predictions, allow a detailed study of top quark production.
A search for flavour-changing neutral-current processes in top-quark decays is presented. Data collected with the ATLAS detector from proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 13TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), are analysed. The search is performed using top-quark pair events, with one top quark decaying through the t -> qZ (q = u, c) flavour-changing neutral-current channel, and the other through the dominant Standard Model mode t -> bW. Only Z boson decays into charged leptons and leptonic W boson decays are considered as signal. Consequently, the final-state topology is characterized by the presence of three isolated charged leptons (electrons or muons), at least two jets, one of the jets originating from a b-quark, and missing transverse momentum from the undetected neutrino. The data are consistent with Standard Model background contributions, and at 95% confidence level the search sets observed (expected) upper limits of 1.7 x 10(-4) (2.4 x 10(-4)) on the t -> uZ branching ratio and 2.4 x 10(-4) (3.2 x 10(-4)) on the t -> cZ branching ratio, constituting the most stringent limits to date.
A search for pair production of up-type vector-like quarks (T) with a significant branching ratio into a top quark and either a Standard Model Higgs boson or a Z boson is presented. The same analysis is also used to search for four-top-quark production in several new physics scenarios. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Data are analysed in the lepton+jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon with high transverse momentum, large missing transverse momentum and multiple jets, as well as the jets+E-T(miss) final state, characterised by multiple jets and large missing transverse momentum. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets identified as originating from b-quarks, and the presence of boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks and Higgs bosons reconstructed as large-radius jets, characteristic of signal events. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and 95% CL upper limits are set on the production cross sections for the different signal processes considered. These cross-section limits are used to derive lower limits on the mass of a vector-like T quark under several branching ratio hypotheses assuming contributions from T -> Wb, Zt, Ht decays. The 95% CL observed lower limits on the T quark mass range between 0.99TeV and 1.43TeV for all possible values of the branching ratios into the three decay modes considered, significantly extending the reach beyond that of previous searches. Additionally, upper limits on anomalous four-top-quark production are set in the context of an effective field theory model, as well as in an universal extra dimensions model.
A search for Higgs boson pair production in the bbbb final state is carried out with up to 36.1 fb(-1) of LHC proton-proton collision data collected at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. Three benchmark signals are studied: a spin-2 graviton decaying into a Higgs boson pair, a scalar resonance decaying into a Higgs boson pair, and Standard Model non-resonant Higgs boson pair production. Two analyses are carried out, each implementing a particular technique for the event reconstruction that targets Higgs bosons reconstructed as pairs of jets or single boosted jets. The resonance mass range covered is 260-3000 GeV. The analyses are statistically combined and upper limits on the production cross section of Higgs boson pairs times branching ratio to bbbb are set in each model. No significant excess is observed; the largest deviation of data over prediction is found at a mass of 280 GeV, corresponding to 2.3 standard deviations globally. The observed 95% confidence level upper limit on the non-resonant production is 13 times the Standard Model prediction.
Results of dedicated Monte Carlo simulations of beam-induced background (BIB) in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented and compared with data recorded in 2012. During normal physics operation this background arises mainly from scattering of the 4 TeV protons on residual gas in the beam pipe. Methods of reconstructing the BIB signals in the ATLAS detector, developed and implemented in the simulation chain based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation package, are described. The interaction rates are determined from the residual gas pressure distribution in the LHC ring in order to set an absolute scale on the predicted rates of BIB so that they can be compared quantitatively with data. Through these comparisons the origins of the BIB leading to different observables in the ATLAS detectors are analysed. The level of agreement between simulation results and BIB measurements by ATLAS in 2012 demonstrates that a good understanding of the origin of BIB has been reached.