Search for: All records

The Amazon rainforest has experienced rapid land‐use changes over the last few decades, including extensive deforestation that can affect riparian habitats and streams. The aim of this study was to assess responses of stream fish assemblages to deforestation and land cover change in the eastern Amazon. We expected that percentage of forest in the catchment is correlated with local habitat complexity, which in turn determines fish assemblage composition and structure. We sampled 71 streams in areas with different land uses and tested for relationships between stream fish assemblages and local habitat and landscape variables while controlling for the effect of intersite distance. Fish assemblage composition and structure were correlated with forest coverage, but local habitat variables explained more of the variation in both assemblage composition and structure than landscape variables. Intersite distance contributed to variance explained by local habitat and landscape variables, and the percentage of variance explained by the unique contribution of local habitat was approximately equivalent to the shared variance explained by all three factors in the model. In these streams of the eastern Amazon, fish assemblages were most strongly influenced by features of instream and riparian habitats, yet indirect effects of deforestation on fish assemblage composition and structure were observed even though intact riparian zones were present at most sites. Long‐term monitoring of the hydrographic basin, instream habitat and aquatic fauna is needed to test for potential legacy effects and time lags, as well as assess species responses to continuing deforestation and land‐use changes in the Amazon.

 

Abstract The production cross-section of a top quark in association with a W boson is measured using proton–proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s} = 8\,\text {TeV}$$ s = 8 TeV . The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $$20.2\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ 20.2 fb - 1 , and was collected in 2012 by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The analysis is performed in the single-lepton channel. Events are selected by requiring one isolated lepton (electron or muon) and at least three jets. A neural network is trained to separate the tW signal from the dominant $$t{\bar{t}}$$ t t ¯ background. The cross-section is extracted from a binned profile maximum-likelihood fit to a two-dimensional discriminant built from the neural-network output and the invariant mass of the hadronically decaying W boson. The measured cross-section is $$\sigma _{tW} = 26 \pm 7\,\text {pb}$$ σ tW = 26 ± 7 pb , in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation. 

Abstract Jet energy scale and resolution measurements with their associated uncertainties are reported for jets using 36–81 fb $$^{-1}$$ - 1 of proton–proton collision data with a centre-of-mass energy of $$\sqrt{s}=13$$ s = 13   $${\text {Te}}{\text {V}}$$ TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed using two different input types: topo-clusters formed from energy deposits in calorimeter cells, as well as an algorithmic combination of charged-particle tracks with those topo-clusters, referred to as the ATLAS particle-flow reconstruction method. The anti- $$k_t$$ k t jet algorithm with radius parameter $$R=0.4$$ R = 0.4 is the primary jet definition used for both jet types. This result presents new jet energy scale and resolution measurements in the high pile-up conditions of late LHC Run 2 as well as a full calibration of particle-flow jets in ATLAS. Jets are initially calibrated using a sequence of simulation-based corrections. Next, several in situ techniques are employed to correct for differences between data and simulation and to measure the resolution of jets. The systematic uncertainties in the jet energy scale for central jets ( $$|\eta |<1.2$$ | η | < 1.2 ) vary from 1% for a wide range of high- $$p_{{\text {T}}}$$ p T jets ( $$2502.5~{\text {Te}}{\text {V}}$$ > 2.5 TeV ). The relative jet energy resolution is measured and ranges from ( $$24 \pm 1.5$$ 24 ± 1.5 )% at 20  $${\text {Ge}}{\text {V}}$$ GeV to ( $$6 \pm 0.5$$ 6 ± 0.5 )% at 300  $${\text {Ge}}{\text {V}}$$ GeV . 

Abstract A measurement of the $$ B_{s}^{0} \rightarrow J/\psi \phi $$ B s 0 → J / ψ ϕ decay parameters using $$ 80.5\, \mathrm {fb^{-1}} $$ 80.5 fb - 1 of integrated luminosity collected with the ATLAS detector from 13  $$\text {Te}\text {V}$$ Te proton–proton collisions at the LHC is presented. The measured parameters include the CP -violating phase $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s , the width difference $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s between the $$B_{s}^{0}$$ B s 0 meson mass eigenstates and the average decay width $$ \Gamma _{s}$$ Γ s . The values measured for the physical parameters are combined with those from $$ 19.2\, \mathrm {fb^{-1}} $$ 19.2 fb - 1 of 7 and 8  $$\text {Te}\text {V}$$ Te data, leading to the following: $$\begin{aligned} \phi _{s}= & {} -0.087 \pm 0.036 ~\mathrm {(stat.)} \pm 0.021 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~rad} \\ \Delta \Gamma _{s}= & {} 0.0657 \pm 0.0043 ~\mathrm {(stat.)}\pm 0.0037 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~ps}^{-1} \\ \Gamma _{s}= & {} 0.6703 \pm 0.0014 ~\mathrm {(stat.)}\pm 0.0018 ~\mathrm {(syst.)~ps}^{-1} \end{aligned}$$ ϕ s = - 0.087 ± 0.036 ( stat . ) ± 0.021 ( syst . ) rad Δ Γ s = 0.0657 ± 0.0043 ( stat . ) ± 0.0037 ( syst . ) ps - 1 Γ s = 0.6703 ± 0.0014 ( stat . ) ± 0.0018 ( syst . ) ps - 1 Results for $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s and $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s are also presented as 68% confidence level contours in the $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s – $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s plane. Furthermore the transversity amplitudes and corresponding strong phases are measured. $$\phi _{s} $$ ϕ s and $$ \Delta \Gamma _{s}$$ Δ Γ s measurements are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. 

A bstract A search for new phenomena with top quark pairs in final states with one isolated electron or muon, multiple jets, and large missing transverse momentum is performed. Signal regions are designed to search for two-, three-, and four-body decays of the directly pair-produced supersymmetric partner of the top quark (stop). Additional signal regions are designed specifically to search for spin-0 mediators that are produced in association with a pair of top quarks and decay into a pair of dark-matter particles. The search is performed using the Large Hadron Collider proton-proton collision dataset at a centre-of-mass energy of $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb − 1 . No significant excess above the Standard Model background is observed, and limits at 95% confidence level are set in the stop-neutralino mass plane and as a function of the mediator mass or the dark-matter particle mass. Stops are excluded up to 1200 GeV (710 GeV) in the two-body (three-body) decay scenario. In the four-body scenario stops up to 640 GeV are excluded for a stop-neutralino mass difference of 60 GeV. Scalar and pseudoscalar dark-matter mediators are excluded up to 200 GeV when the coupling strengths of the mediator to Standard Model and dark-matter particles are both equal to one and when the mass of the dark-matter particle is 1 GeV. 

Abstract Differential cross-section measurements are presented for the electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z boson. These measurements are sensitive to the vector-boson fusion production mechanism and provide a fundamental test of the gauge structure of the Standard Model. The analysis is performed using proton–proton collision data collected by ATLAS at $$\sqrt{s}=13\ \hbox {TeV}$$ s = 13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of $$139\ \hbox {fb}^{-1}$$ 139 fb - 1 . The differential cross-sections are measured in the $$Z\rightarrow \ell ^+\ell ^-$$ Z → ℓ + ℓ - decay channel ( $$\ell =e,\mu $$ ℓ = e , μ ) as a function of four observables: the dijet invariant mass, the rapidity interval spanned by the two jets, the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets, and the transverse momentum of the dilepton pair. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are sufficiently precise to distinguish between different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions calculated using Powheg+Pythia8 , Herwig7+Vbfnlo and Sherpa  2.2. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions using a dimension-six effective field theory. The measurement of the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets is found to be particularly sensitive to the interference between the Standard Model and dimension-six scattering amplitudes and provides a direct test of charge-conjugation and parity invariance in the weak-boson self-interactions.