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This report presents a comprehensive collection of searches for new physics performed by the ATLAS Collaboration during the Run~2 period of data taking at the Large Hadron Collider, from 2015 to 2018, corresponding to about 140~$$^{-1}$$ of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$~TeV proton--proton collision data. These searches cover a variety of beyond-the-standard model topics such as dark matter candidates, new vector bosons, hidden-sector particles, leptoquarks, or vector-like quarks, among others. Searches for supersymmetric particles or extended Higgs sectors are explicitly excluded as these are the subject of separate reports by the Collaboration. For each topic, the most relevant searches are described, focusing on their importance and sensitivity and, when appropriate, highlighting the experimental techniques employed. In addition to the description of each analysis, complementary searches are compared, and the overall sensitivity of the ATLAS experiment to each type of new physics is discussed. Summary plots and statistical combinations of multiple searches are included whenever possible. 

Top-quark pair production is observed in lead–lead ( $\mathrm{Pb}+\mathrm{Pb}$) collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02\mathrm{TeV}$at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS detector. The data sample was recorded in 2015 and 2018, amounting to an integrated luminosity of $1.9{\mathrm{nb}}^{-1}$. Events with exactly one electron and one muon and at least two jets are selected. Top-quark pair production is measured with an observed (expected) significance of 5.0 (4.1) standard deviations. The measured top-quark pair production cross section is ${\sigma }_{t\overline{t}}=3.6{}_{-0.9}^{+1.0}\left(\mathrm{stat}\right){}_{-0.5}^{+0.8}\left(\mathrm{syst}\right)\mathrm{\mu }\mathrm{b}$, with a total relative uncertainty of 31%, and is consistent with theoretical predictions using a range of different nuclear parton distribution functions. The observation of this process consolidates the evidence of the existence of all quark flavors in the preequilibrium stage of the quark-gluon plasma at very high energy densities, similar to the conditions present in the early Universe. © 2025 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2025CERN 

The ATLAS experiment has developed extensive software and distributed computing systems for Run 3 of the LHC. These systems are described in detail, including software infrastructure and workflows, distributed data and workload management, database infrastructure, and validation. The use of these systems to prepare the data for physics analysis and assess its quality are described, along with the software tools used for data analysis itself. An outlook for the development of these projects towards Run 4 is also provided. 

A search is performed for dark matter particles produced in association with a resonantly produced pair of b-quarks with 30 < mbb < 150 GeV using 140 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This signature is expected in extensions of the standard model predicting the production of dark matter particles, in particular those containing a dark Higgs boson s that decays into bb¯. The highly boosted s → bb¯ topology is reconstructed using jet reclustering and a new identification algorithm. This search places stringent constraints across regions of the dark Higgs model parameter space that satisfy the observed relic density, excluding dark Higgs bosons with masses between 30 and 150 GeV in benchmark scenarios with Z0 mediator masses up to 4.8 TeV at 95% confidence level. 

Z boson events at the Large Hadron Collider can be selected with high purity and are sensitive to a diverse range of QCD phenomena. As a result, these events are often used to probe the nature of the strong force, improve Monte Carlo event generators, and search for deviations from standard model predictions. All previous measurements of Z boson production characterize the event properties using a small number of observables and present the results as differential cross sections in predetermined bins. In this analysis, a machine learning method called omnifold is used to produce a simultaneous measurement of twenty-four Z+jets observables using 139 /fb of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) =  TeV collected with the ATLAS detector. Unlike any previous fiducial differential cross-section measurement, this result is presented unbinned as a dataset of particle-level events, allowing for flexible reuse in a variety of contexts and for new observables to be constructed from the twenty-four measured observables. 

This paper describes a measurement of the jet radius dependence of the dijet momentum balance between leading back-to-back jets in $1.72{\mathrm{nb}}^{-1}$of $\text{Pb}+\text{Pb}$collisions collected in 2018 and $255{\mathrm{pb}}^{-1}$of $pp$collisions collected in 2017 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Both datasets were collected at $\sqrt{s_{\text{NN}}}=5.02$TeV. Jets are reconstructed using the anti- $k_t$algorithm with jet radius parameters $R=0.2$, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6. The dijet momentum balance distributions are constructed for leading jets with transverse momentum $p_{\text{T}}$from 100 to 562 GeV for $R=0.2$, 0.3, and 0.4 jets, and from 158 to 562 GeV for $R=0.5$and 0.6 jets. The absolutely normalized dijet momentum balance distributions are constructed to compare measurements of the dijet yields in $\text{Pb}+\text{Pb}$collisions directly to the dijet cross sections in $pp$collisions. For all jet radii considered here, there is a suppression of more balanced dijets in $\text{Pb}+\text{Pb}$collisions compared with $pp$collisions, while for more imbalanced dijets there is an enhancement. There is a jet radius dependence to the dijet yields, being stronger for more imbalanced dijets than for more balanced dijets. Additionally, jet pair nuclear modification factors are measured. The subleading jet yields are found to be more suppressed than leading jet yields in dijets. A jet radius dependence of the pair nuclear modification factors is observed, with the suppression decreasing with increasing jet radius. These measurements provide new constraints on jet quenching scenarios in the quark-gluon plasma. ©2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2024CERN 

This paper presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new pseudoscalar particles, H → aa, where one pseudoscalar decays into a b-quark pair and the other decays into a τ-lepton pair, in the mass range 12 ≤ ma ≤ 60 GeV. The analysis uses pp collision data at \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb−1. No significant excess above the Standard Model (SM) prediction is observed. Assuming the SM Higgs boson production cross section, the search sets upper limits at 95% confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decaying into BR (H → aa → bb\tau\tau), between 2.2% and 3.9% depending on the pseudoscalar mass. 

This Letter presents results from a combination of searches for Higgs boson pair production using $126–140{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$recorded with the ATLAS detector. At 95% confidence level (CL), the upper limit on the production rate is 2.9 times the standard model (SM) prediction, with an expected limit of 2.4 assuming no Higgs boson pair production. Constraints on the Higgs boson self-coupling modifier ${\kappa }_{\lambda }={\lambda }_{HHH}/{\lambda }_{HHH}^{\mathrm{SM}}$, and the quartic $HHVV$coupling modifier ${\kappa }_{2V}=g_{HHVV}/g_{HHVV}^{\mathrm{SM}}$, are derived individually, fixing the other parameter to its SM value. The observed 95% CL intervals are $-1.2<{\kappa }_{\lambda }<7.2$and $0.6<{\kappa }_{2V}<1.5$, respectively, while the expected intervals are $-1.6<{\kappa }_{\lambda }<7.2$and $0.4<{\kappa }_{2V}<1.6$in the SM case. Constraints obtained for several interaction parameters within Higgs effective field theory are the strongest to date, offering insights into potential deviations from SM predictions. © 2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2024CERN 

Higgsinos with masses near the electroweak scale can solve the hierarchy problem and provide a dark matter candidate, while detecting them at the LHC remains challenging if their mass splitting is $\mathcal{O}\left(1\mathrm{GeV}\right)$. This Letter presents a novel search for nearly mass-degenerate Higgsinos in events with an energetic jet, missing transverse momentum, and a low-momentum track with a significant transverse impact parameter using $140{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$collected by the ATLAS experiment. For the first time since LEP, a range of mass splittings between the lightest charged and neutral Higgsinos from 0.3 to 0.9 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, with a maximum reach of approximately 170 GeV in the Higgsino mass. © 2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration2024CERN 

A<sc>bstract</sc> A combination of searches for new heavy spin-1 resonances decaying into different pairings ofW,Z, or Higgs bosons, as well as directly into leptons or quarks, is presented. The data sample used corresponds to 139 fb⁻¹of proton-proton collisions at$$ \sqrt{s} $$ $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV collected during 2015–2018 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Analyses selecting quark pairs (qq,bb,$$ t\overline{t} $$ $t\overline{t}$, andtb) or third-generation leptons (τνandττ) are included in this kind of combination for the first time. A simplified model predicting a spin-1 heavy vector-boson triplet is used. Cross-section limits are set at the 95% confidence level and are compared with predictions for the benchmark model. These limits are also expressed in terms of constraints on couplings of the heavy vector-boson triplet to quarks, leptons, and the Higgs boson. The complementarity of the various analyses increases the sensitivity to new physics, and the resulting constraints are stronger than those from any individual analysis considered. The data exclude a heavy vector-boson triplet with mass below 5.8 TeV in a weakly coupled scenario, below 4.4 TeV in a strongly coupled scenario, and up to 1.5 TeV in the case of production via vector-boson fusion.