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Abstract The accurate simulation of additional interactions at the ATLAS experiment for the analysis of proton–proton collisions delivered by the Large Hadron Collider presents a significant challenge to the computing resources. During the LHC Run 2 (2015–2018), there were up to 70 inelastic interactions per bunch crossing, which need to be accounted for in Monte Carlo (MC) production. In this document, a new method to account for these additional interactions in the simulation chain is described. Instead of sampling the inelastic interactions and adding their energy deposits to a hard-scatter interaction one-by-one, the inelastic interactions are presampled, independent of the hard scatter, and stored as combined events. Consequently, for each hard-scatter interaction, only one such presampled event needs to be added as part of the simulation chain. For the Run 2 simulation chain, with an average of 35 interactions per bunch crossing, this new method provides a substantial reduction in MC production CPU needs of around 20%, while reproducing the properties of the reconstructed quantities relevant for physics analyses with good accuracy. 

Abstract This paper presents a measurement of the electroweak production of two jets in association with a $$Z\gamma $$ Z γ pair, with the Z boson decaying into two neutrinos. It also presents a search for invisible or partially invisible decays of a Higgs boson with a mass of 125  $$\text {GeV}$$ GeV produced through vector-boson fusion with a photon in the final state. These results use data from LHC proton–proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 13  $$\text {TeV}$$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  $$\hbox {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 . The event signature, shared by all benchmark processes considered for the measurements and searches, is characterized by a significant amount of unbalanced transverse momentum and a photon in the final state, in addition to a pair of forward jets. Electroweak $$Z\gamma $$ Z γ production in association with two jets is observed in this final state with a significance of 5.2 (5.1 expected) standard deviations. The measured fiducial cross-section for this process is $$1.31\pm 0.29$$ 1.31 ± 0.29  fb. An observed (expected) upper limit of 0.37 ( $$0.34^{+0.15}_{-0.10}$$ 0 . 34 - 0.10 + 0.15 ) at 95% confidence level is set on the branching ratio of a 125  $$\text {GeV}$$ GeV Higgs boson to invisible particles, assuming the Standard Model production cross-section. The signature is also interpreted in the context of decays of a Higgs boson into a photon and a dark photon. An observed (expected) 95% CL upper limit on the branching ratio for this decay is set at 0.018 ( $$0.017^{+0.007}_{-0.005}$$ 0 . 017 - 0.005 + 0.007 ), assuming the Standard Model production cross-section for a 125  $$\text {GeV}$$ GeV Higgs boson. 

A bstract A search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson ( H ) into a b $$ \overline{b} $$ b ¯ resonance plus missing transverse momentum is described. The search is performed with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using 139 fb − 1 of pp collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV. The search targets events from ZH production in an NMSSM scenario where H → $$ {\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_2^0{\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_1^0 $$ χ ~ 2 0 χ ~ 1 0 , with $$ {\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_2^0 $$ χ ~ 2 0 → $$ a{\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_1^0 $$ a χ ~ 1 0 , where a is a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson and $$ {\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_{1,2}^0 $$ χ ~ 1 , 2 0 are the two lightest neutralinos. The decay of the a boson into a pair of b -quarks results in a peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution. The final-state signature consists of two leptons, two or more jets, at least one of which is identified as originating from a b -quark, and missing transverse momentum. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations and upper limits are set on the product of cross section times branching ratio for a three-dimensional scan of the masses of the $$ {\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_2^0 $$ χ ~ 2 0 , $$ {\overset{\sim }{\chi}}_1^0 $$ χ ~ 1 0 and a boson. 

Abstract During LHC Run 2 (2015–2018) the ATLAS Level-1 topological trigger allowed efficient data-taking by the ATLAS experiment at luminosities up to 2.1 $$\times $$ × 10 $$^{34}$$ 34  cm $$^{-2}$$ - 2 s $$^{-1}$$ - 1 , which exceeds the design value by a factor of two. The system was installed in 2016 and operated in 2017 and 2018. It uses Field Programmable Gate Array processors to select interesting events by placing kinematic and angular requirements on electromagnetic clusters, jets, $$\tau $$ τ -leptons, muons and the missing transverse energy. It allowed to significantly improve the background event rejection and signal event acceptance, in particular for Higgs and B -physics processes. 

A bstract The fragmentation properties of jets containing b -hadrons are studied using charged B mesons in 139 fb − 1 of pp collisions at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during the period from 2015 to 2018. The B mesons are reconstructed using the decay of B ± into J/ψK ± , with the J/ψ decaying into a pair of muons. Jets are reconstructed using the anti- k t algorithm with radius parameter R = 0 . 4. The measurement determines the longitudinal and transverse momentum profiles of the reconstructed B hadrons with respect to the axes of the jets to which they are geometrically associated. These distributions are measured in intervals of the jet transverse momentum, ranging from 50 GeV to above 100 GeV. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared with several Monte Carlo predictions using different parton shower and hadronisation models. The results for the longitudinal and transverse profiles provide useful inputs to improve the description of heavy-flavour fragmentation in jets.