Alessandro Calandri

A measurement of the total $pp$ cross section at the LHC at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV is presented. An integrated luminosity of $500$ $\mu$b$^{-1}$ was accumulated in a special run with high-$\beta^{\star}$ beam optics to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable $t$. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the $-t$ range from $0.014$ GeV$^2$ to $0.1$ GeV$^2$ to extrapolate $t\rightarrow 0$, the total cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X)$, is measured via the optical theorem to be: $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = {96.07} \; \pm 0.18 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.85 \; ({{exp.}}) \pm 0.31 \; ({extr.}) \; {mb} \;,$ where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation $t\rightarrow 0$. In addition, the slope of the exponential function describing the elastic cross section at small $t$ is determined to be $B = 19.74 \pm 0.05 \; ({{stat.}}) \pm 0.23 \; ({{syst.}}) \; {GeV}^{-2}$.

This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.

This paper describes the algorithms for the reconstruction and identification of electrons in the central region of the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These algorithms were used for all ATLAS results with electrons in the final state that are based on the 2012 pp collision data produced by the LHC at $\sqrt{\mathrm{s}}$ = 8 TeV. The efficiency of these algorithms, together with the charge misidentification rate, is measured in data and evaluated in simulated samples using electrons from $Z\rightarrow ee$, $Z\rightarrow ee\gamma$ and $J/\psi \rightarrow ee$ decays. For these efficiency measurements, the full recorded data set, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$, is used. Based on a new reconstruction algorithm used in 2012, the electron reconstruction efficiency is 97% for electrons with $E_\mathrm{T}=15$ GeV and 99% at $E_\mathrm{T} = 50$ GeV. Combining this with the efficiency of additional selection criteria to reject electrons from background processes or misidentified hadrons, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify electrons at the ATLAS experiment varies from 65% to 95%, depending on the transverse momentum of the electron and background rejection.

A search is conducted for both resonant and non-resonant high-mass new phenomena in dielectron and dimuon final states. The search uses 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data, collected at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015. The dilepton invariant mass is used as the discriminating variable. No significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed; therefore limits are set on the signal model parameters of interest at 95% credibility level. Upper limits are set on the cross-section times branching ratio for resonances decaying to dileptons, and the limits are converted into lower limits on the resonance mass, ranging between 2.74 TeV and 3.36 TeV, depending on the model. Lower limits on the $\ell\ell qq$ contact interaction scale are set between 16.7 TeV and 25.2 TeV, also depending on the model.

A study of the decays $B^0\to \mu^+\mu^-$ and $B^0_s\to \mu^+\mu^-$ has been performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $25$ fb$^{-1}$ of $7$ TeV and $8$ TeV proton--proton collisions collected with the ATLAS detector during the LHC Run 1. For $B^0$, an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at ${\cal B}(B^0 \to \mu^+\mu^-) < 4.2 \times 10^{-10}$ at $95\%$ confidence level. For $B^0_s$, the branching fraction ${\cal B}(B^0_s \to \mu^+\mu^-) = \left( 0.9^{+1.1}_{-0.8} \right) \times 10^{-9}$ is measured. The results are consistent with the Standard Model expectation with a $p$-value of $4.8\%$, corresponding to $2.0$ standard deviations.

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, was a success achieved with only a percent of the entire dataset foreseen for the LHC. It opened a landscape of possibilities in the study of Higgs boson properties, Electroweak Symmetry breaking and the Standard Model in general, as well as new avenues in probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. Six years after the discovery, with a conspicuously larger dataset collected during LHC Run 2 at a 13 TeV centre-of-mass energy, the theory and experimental particle physics communities have started a meticulous exploration of the potential for precision measurements of its properties. This includes studies of Higgs boson production and decays processes, the search for rare decays and production modes, high energy observables, and searches for an extended electroweak symmetry breaking sector. This report summarises the potential reach and opportunities in Higgs physics during the High Luminosity phase of the LHC, with an expected dataset of pp collisions at 14 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. These studies are performed in light of the most recent analyses from LHC collaborations and the latest theoretical developments. The potential of an LHC upgrade, colliding protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV and producing a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$, is also discussed.

The distributions of transverse momentum and longitudinal momentum fraction of charged particles in jets are measured in Pb+Pb and pp collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The distributions are measured as a function of jet transverse momentum and rapidity. The analysis utilises an integrated luminosity of 0.14 nb -1 of Pb+Pb data and 4.0 pb -1 of pp data collected in 2011 and 2013, respectively, at the same centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per colliding nucleon pair. The distributions measured in pp collisions are used as a reference for those measured in Pb+Pb collisions in order to evaluate the impact on the internal structure of jets from the jet energy loss of fast partons propagating through the hot, dense medium created in heavy-ion collisions. Modest but significant centrality-dependent modifications of fragmentation functions in Pb+Pb collisions with respect to those in pp collisions are seen. No significant dependence of modifications on jet pT and rapidity selections is observed except for the fragments with the highest transverse momenta for which some reduction of yields is observed for more forward jets.

A search for heavy long-lived charged R-hadrons is reported using a data sample corresponding to 3.2 fb−1 of proton–proton collisions at s=13TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The search is based on observables related to large ionisation losses and slow propagation velocities, which are signatures of heavy charged particles travelling significantly slower than the speed of light. No significant deviations from the expected background are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are provided on the production cross section of long-lived R-hadrons in the mass range from 600 GeV to 2000 GeV and gluino, bottom and top squark masses are excluded up to 1580 GeV, 805 GeV and 890 GeV, respectively.

This report comprises the outcome of five working groups that have studied the physics potential of the high-luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC) and the perspectives for a possible future high-energy LHC (HE-LHC).The working groups covered a broad range of topics: Standard Model measurements, studies of the properties ofthe Higgs boson, searches for phenomena beyond the Standard Model, flavor physics of heavy quarks and leptonsand studies of QCD matter at high density and temperature.The work is prepared as an input to the ongoing process of updating the European Strategy for Particle Physics,a process that will be concluded in May 2020.

Inclusive four-jet events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $$ \sqrt{s}=7 $$ TeV are analysed for the presence of hard double-parton scattering using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37.3 pb−1, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The contribution of hard double-parton scattering to the production of four-jet events is extracted using an artificial neural network, assuming that hard double-parton scattering can be approximated by an uncorrelated overlaying of dijet events. For events containing at least four jets with transverse momentum p T ≥ 20 GeV and pseudorapidity |η| ≤ 4.4, and at least one having p T ≥ 42.5 GeV, the contribution of hard double-parton scattering is estimated to be f DPS = 0.092 − 0.011 + 0.005 (stat.) − 0.037 + 0.033 (syst.). After combining this measurement with those of the inclusive dijet and four-jet cross-sections in the appropriate phase space regions, the effective cross-section, σ eff , was determined to be σ eff = 14. 9 − 1.0 + 1.2 (stat.) − 3.8 + 5.1 (syst.) mb. This result is consistent within the quoted uncertainties with previous measurements of σ eff , performed at centre-of-mass energies between 63 GeV and 8 TeV using various final states, and it corresponds to 21 − 6 + 7 % of the total inelastic cross-section measured at $$ \sqrt{s}=7 $$ TeV. The distributions of the observables sensitive to the contribution of hard double-parton scattering, corrected for detector effects, are also provided.

Inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV is studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 3.2fb−1. The cross section is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy above 125GeV in different regions of photon pseudorapidity. Next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD and Monte Carlo event-generator predictions are compared to the cross-section measurements and provide an adequate description of the data.

The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, was a success achieved with only a percent of the entire dataset foreseen for the LHC. It opened a landscape of possibilities in the study of Higgs boson properties, Electroweak Symmetry breaking and the Standard Model in general, as well as new avenues in probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. Six years after the discovery, with a conspicuously larger dataset collected during LHC Run 2 at a 13 TeV centre-of-mass energy, the theory and experimental particle physics communities have started a meticulous exploration of the potential for precision measurements of its properties. This includes studies of Higgs boson production and decays processes, the search for rare decays and production modes, high energy observables, and searches for an extended electroweak symmetry breaking sector. This report summarises the potential reach and opportunities in Higgs physics during the High Luminosity phase of the LHC, with an expected dataset of pp collisions at 14 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. These studies are performed in light of the most recent analyses from LHC collaborations and the latest theoretical developments. The potential of an LHC upgrade, colliding protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV and producing a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$, is also discussed.

A measurement of the calorimeter response to isolated charged hadrons in the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. This measurement is performed with 3.2 nb $$^{-1}$$ of proton–proton collision data at $$\sqrt{s}=7$$ $$\,\mathrm{TeV}$$ from 2010 and 0.1 nb $$^{-1}$$ of data at $$\sqrt{s}=8$$ $$\,\mathrm{TeV}$$ from 2012. A number of aspects of the calorimeter response to isolated hadrons are explored. After accounting for energy deposited by neutral particles, there is a 5% discrepancy in the modelling, using various sets of Geant4 hadronic physics models, of the calorimeter response to isolated charged hadrons in the central calorimeter region. The description of the response to anti-protons at low momenta is found to be improved with respect to previous analyses. The electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters are also examined separately, and the detector simulation is found to describe the response in the hadronic calorimeter well. The jet energy scale uncertainty and correlations in scale between jets of different momenta and pseudorapidity are derived based on these studies. The uncertainty is 2–5% for jets with transverse momenta above 2 $$\,\mathrm{TeV}$$ , where this method provides the jet energy scale uncertainty for ATLAS.

A search has been made for supersymmetry in a final state containing two photons and missing transverse momentum using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The search makes use of [Formula: see text] of proton-proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2015. Using a combination of data-driven and Monte-Carlo-based approaches, the Standard Model background is estimated to be [Formula: see text] events. No events are observed in the signal region; considering the expected background and its uncertainty, this observation implies a model-independent 95 % CL upper limit of 0.93 fb (3.0 events) on the visible cross section due to physics beyond the Standard Model. In the context of a generalized model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with a bino-like next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, this leads to a lower limit of 1650 GeV on the mass of a degenerate octet of gluino states, independent of the mass of the lighter bino-like neutralino.

To probe the W tb vertex structure, top-quark and W -boson polarisation observables are measured from t-channel single-top-quark events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb−1, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Selected events contain one isolated electron or muon, large missing transverse momentum and exactly two jets, with one of them identified as likely to contain a b-hadron. Stringent selection requirements are applied to discriminate t-channel single-top-quark events from background. The polarisation observables are extracted from asymmetries in angular distributions measured with respect to spin quantisation axes appropriately chosen for the top quark and the W boson. The asymmetry measurements are performed at parton level by correcting the observed angular distributions for detector effects and hadronisation after subtracting the background contributions. The measured top-quark and W -boson polarisation values are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions. Limits on the imaginary part of the anomalous coupling g R are also set from model-independent measurements.

This article presents measurements of $t\bar{t}$ differential cross-sections in a fiducial phase-space region, using an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015. Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and absolute rapidity of the top quark, and of the transverse momentum, absolute rapidity and invariant mass of the $t\bar{t}$ system. The $t\bar{t}$ events are selected by requiring one electron and one muon of opposite electric charge, and at least two jets, one of which must be tagged as containing a $b$-hadron. The measured differential cross-sections are compared to predictions of next-to-leading order generators matched to parton showers and the measurements are found to be consistent with all models within the experimental uncertainties with the exception of the POWHEG-Box + HERWIG++ predictions, which differ significantly from the data in both the transverse momentum of the top quark and the mass of the $t\bar{t}$ system.

This is the third out of five chapters of the final report [1] of the Workshop on Physics at HL-LHC, and perspectives on HE-LHC [2]. It is devoted to the study of the potential, in the search for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, of the High Luminosity (HL) phase of the LHC, defined as $3~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data taken at a centre-of-mass energy of $14~\mathrm{TeV}$, and of a possible future upgrade, the High Energy (HE) LHC, defined as $15~\mathrm{ab}^{-1}$ of data at a centre-of-mass energy of $27~\mathrm{TeV}$. We consider a large variety of new physics models, both in a simplified model fashion and in a more model-dependent one. A long list of contributions from the theory and experimental (ATLAS, CMS, LHCb) communities have been collected and merged together to give a complete, wide, and consistent view of future prospects for BSM physics at the considered colliders. On top of the usual standard candles, such as supersymmetric simplified models and resonances, considered for the evaluation of future collider potentials, this report contains results on dark matter and dark sectors, long lived particles, leptoquarks, sterile neutrinos, axion-like particles, heavy scalars, vector-like quarks, and more. Particular attention is placed, especially in the study of the HL-LHC prospects, to the detector upgrades, the assessment of the future systematic uncertainties, and new experimental techniques. The general conclusion is that the HL-LHC, on top of allowing to extend the present LHC mass and coupling reach by $20-50\%$ on most new physics scenarios, will also be able to constrain, and potentially discover, new physics that is presently unconstrained. Moreover, compared to the HL-LHC, the reach in most observables will generally more than double at the HE-LHC, which may represent a good candidate future facility for a final test of TeV-scale new physics.

This note documents predictions for the inclusive production cross sections of the Standard Model Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider at a centre of mass energy of 13.6 TeV. The predictions here are based on simple extrapolations of previously documented predictions published in the CERN Yellow Report "Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector". The predictions documented in this note should serve as a reference while a more complete and update-to-date derivation of cross section predictions is in progress.

A search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton has been performed using 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015. Two exclusive final states are considered, with either exactly one or at least two tau leptons. No excess over the Standard Model prediction is observed in the data. Results are interpreted in the context of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking and a simplified model of gluino pair production with tau-rich cascade decays, substantially improving on previous limits. In the GMSB model considered, supersymmetry-breaking scale ($\Lambda$) values below 92 TeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, corresponding to gluino masses below 2000 GeV. For large values of $\tan\beta$, values of $\Lambda$ up to 107 TeV and gluino masses up to 2300 GeV are excluded. In the simplified model, gluino masses are excluded up to 1570 GeV for neutralino masses around 100 GeV. Neutralino masses up to 700 GeV are excluded for all gluino masses between 800 GeV and 1500 GeV, while the strongest exclusion of 750 GeV is achieved for gluino masses around 1400 GeV.

A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in the ℓ−ℓ+ℓ′ −ℓ′ + and $$ {\ell}^{-}{\ell}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu} $$ channels (ℓ = e, μ) in proton-proton collisions at $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2012 is presented. The fiducial cross sections for ZZ → ℓ−ℓ+ℓ′ −ℓ′ + and $$ ZZ\to {\ell}^{-}{\ell}^{+}\nu \overline{\nu} $$ are measured in selected phase-space regions. The total cross section for ZZ events produced with both Z bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV is measured from the combination of the two channels to be 7.3 ± 0.4(stat) ± 0.3(syst) − 0.1 − 0.2 (lumi) pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of 6. 6 − 0.6 + 0.7 pb. The differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. The differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading Z boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in ZZ production.

The tracking performance parameters of the ATLAS Transition Radiation Tracker (TRT) as part of the ATLAS inner detector are described in this paper for different data-taking conditions in proton-proton, proton-lead and lead-lead collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The performance is studied using data collected during the first period of LHC operation (Run 1) and is compared with Monte Carlo simulations. The performance of the TRT, operating with two different gas mixtures (xenon-based and argon-based) and its dependence on the TRT occupancy is presented. These studies show that the tracking performance of the TRT is similar for the two gas mixtures and that a significant contribution to the particle momentum resolution is made by the TRT up to high particle densities.

The dijet production cross section for jets containing a b-hadron (b-jets) has been measured in proton-proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of [Formula: see text] TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of [Formula: see text]. The cross section is measured for events with two identified b-jets with a transverse momentum [Formula: see text] GeV and a minimum separation in the [Formula: see text]-[Formula: see text] plane of [Formula: see text]. At least one of the jets in the event is required to have [Formula: see text] GeV. The cross section is measured differentially as a function of dijet invariant mass, dijet transverse momentum, boost of the dijet system, and the rapidity difference, azimuthal angle and angular distance between the b-jets. The results are compared to different predictions of leading order and next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics matrix elements supplemented with models for parton-showers and hadronization.

This Report summarizes the results of the activities of the LHC Higgs Cross Section Working Group in the period 2014-2016. The main goal of the working group was to present the state-of-the-art of Higgs physics at the LHC, integrating all new results that have appeared in the last few years. The first part compiles the most up-to-date predictions of Higgs boson production cross sections and decay branching ratios, parton distribution functions, and off-shell Higgs boson production and interference effects. The second part discusses the recent progress in Higgs effective field theory predictions, followed by the third part on pseudo-observables, simplified template cross section and fiducial cross section measurements, which give the baseline framework for Higgs boson property measurements. The fourth part deals with the beyond the Standard Model predictions of various benchmark scenarios of Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, extended scalar sector, Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and exotic Higgs boson decays. This report follows three previous working-group reports: Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 1. Inclusive Observables (CERN-2011-002), Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 2. Differential Distributions (CERN-2012-002), and Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 3. Higgs properties (CERN-2013-004). The current report serves as the baseline reference for Higgs physics in LHC Run 2 and beyond.

Le theme des analyses presentees dans ce document est la mesure des proprietes du boson de Higgs se desintegrant dans le mode H→ZZ→4l dans l'experience ATLAS au CERN. Le document commence par un resume detaille concernant la procedure d'etalonnage des electrons: l'algorithme de combinaison trace-cluster ameliore la resolution en energie (surtout pour les electrons ayant une faible energie transverse) en exploitant les informations du cluster et de la trace dans un ajustement par maximum de vraisemblance. L'amelioration en resolution est approximativement de 18-20% pour les desintegrations du J/Ψ en di-electrons, et 3% pour Z→ee. Par la suite, la combinaison E-p est appliquee au canal H→ZZ→4l avec electrons dans l'etat final permettant d’obtenir un gain modere sur la distribution de la masse invariante (4-5%). En deuxieme lieu, la masse du boson de Higgs et sa largeur sont estimees, en particulier afin de comprendre les effets apportes par l'utilisation de l'algorithme de combinaison trace-cluster. La masse a ete calculee en se servant d'un ajustement a deux dimensions applique sur la masse invariante m4l et un score de discrimination du signal contre le bruit de fond ZZ*. Cette discrimination est obtenue en exploitant les correlations angulaires dont les distributions sont sensibles au spin et a la parite du boson de Higgs. L’etude sur la largeur du boson est ensuite detaillee : les resultats sont bases sur une approche qui vise a contraindre cette largeur en analysant la region de haute masse m4l ou le boson de Higgs se comporte comme un propagateur. La section efficace au pic de la resonance (« on-shell ») depend de la largeur totale du boson de Higgs, ce qui n’est pas le cas pour la production dans la region de haute masse (« off-shell »). Par consequent, des limites indirectes sur la largeur peuvent etre determinees en combinant les regions « on-shell » et « off-shell ». Une limite a 6.7 fois la largeur Higgs ΓSMH est obtenue via le canal 4l. En combinant la mesure « on-shell » avec tous les canaux de desintegration etudies (notamment ZZ→4l, ZZ→2l2ν and WW→lνlν), les resultats aboutissent a une limite observee (attendue) sur la largeur totale de 22.7 (33.0) MeV. La derniere partie de ce travail de these est consacree a l'analyse sur la largeur du boson de Higgs en quatre leptons a haute (High-Luminosity LHC) luminosite integree (respectivement 300 fb⁻¹ et 3000 fb⁻¹) : il s’agit d’une etude extrapolant a √s =14 TeV les techniques utilisees pour l’analyse a 8 TeV (Run 1).

The theme of the analyses presented in this Thesis is the measurement of the Higgs boson properties in the H→ZZ→4l decay channel with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. A detailed overview on the electron calibration process is first presented. In this regard, the track-cluster combination algorithm is found to improve the energy resolution of low ET electrons by exploiting both track and cluster information into a maximum likelihood fit. The improvement in resolution is approximately 18-20% for J/Ψ dielectron decays, and of the order of 3% for Z→ee events. In addition, the E-p combination algorithm has also been applied to the H→ZZ→4l channel with electrons in the final state resulting in a non-negligible gain on the invariant mass distribution (4-5%). Secondly, the Higgs mass and its total width are evaluated in the H→ZZ→4l channel. The Higgs mass is measured in the 4l decay channel with particular interest on the beneficial effects brought by the improved electron calibration and the track-cluster combination. The mass on the full 2011 and 2012 datasets is worked out with a 2-dimensional fit on the invariant mass of the 4 lepton final state, m4l, and on a boosted decision tree (BDT)-based output conceived against the main ZZ irreducible background and constructed on variables that are sensitive to the Higgs boson spin-parity state. Regarding the Higgs width, results are based on a relatively recent approach aimed at indirectly constraining the Higgs boson width by exploiting the m4l high-mass region where the Higgs boson acts as a propagator. The Higgs production cross section in the on-shell m4l region, where the Higgs boson is a resonance, depends on the total Higgs width, whereas this is not the case for the high mass m4l (off-shell). Limits on the Higgs width can be therefore set when merging the off-shell results with the on-shell ones. A limit of ∼ 6.7 times ΓSMH is obtained in the four lepton channel. Secondly, by combining with the on-shell measurement and using all the decay channels in the analysis, i.e. ZZ→4l, ZZ→2l2ν and WW→lνlν, the results lead to an observed (expected) 95% C.L. upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV (4.2 MeV is the Standard Model predicted Higgs width at mH=125 GeV).The last section of the thesis is devoted to the evaluation of the Higgs width at √s=14 TeV in the high luminosity scenario (High Luminosity LHC), 300 fb⁻¹ and 3000 fb⁻¹, by employing the same techniques exploited in the previous Run 1 analysis at √s=8 TeV.

The HV-CMOS (High Voltage - Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) pixel technology has recently risen interest for the upgrade of the pixel detector of the ATLAS experiment towards the High Luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) . HV-CMOS sensors can be employed in the pixel outer layers (R >15 cm), where the radiation hardness requirements are less stringent, as they could instrument large areas at a relatively low cost. In addition, smaller pixel granularity can be achieved by exploiting sub-pixel encoding technology. Therefore, the largest impact on physics performance, tracking and flavour tagging, could be reached if exploited in the innermost layer (in place of the current IBL) or in the next-to-innermost layer. This proceeding will present studies on tracking and flavour-tagging performance in presence of HV-CMOS sensors in the innermost layer of the ATLAS detector.

The identification of jets containing bottom or charm hadrons is crucial to the LHC physics program.Top-quark decays proceed almost exclusively through a b-quark.The Standard Model Higgs boson decays predominantly to b b pairs.Several scenarios of new physics result in an enhanced production of fermions of the third generation, such as models with an extended Higgs sector or scalar top and bottom quark production in Supersymmetry.These physics scenarios correspond to very different environments for performing the identification of jets with heavy flavour hadrons of very different kinematics.This justifies a special effort in the identification of band c-jets with the ATLAS detector [1] over a broad kinematical range.Flavour tagging is based on the reconstructed trajectories of particle tracks and their extrapolation to the colliding beam envelope.The introduction of the ATLAS IBL pixel layer located at a radial distance of 3.3 cm from the interaction region with a 10 µm hit spatial resolution in Run 2 [2] resulted in an improvement of the track extrapolation resolution by a factor up to 2 at low values of the track transverse momentum, p T .The adoption of a stochastic model of energy deposition in Si pixels [3] and of a more realistic description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector system in the 2017 software configuration improved the data/MC agreement for the track extrapolation resolution and the response of track-based taggers.Improvements and innovations in physics taggers, new approaches to multivariate analysis and training samples have brought optimised and more performant flavour-tagging algorithms for the analysis of the 2017 LHC collision data with ATLAS.This contribution summarises these recent developments.More details on jet flavour tagging in ATLAS and its performance in the 2017 configuration can be found in [4,5].

The investigation of the mechanism of electroweak (EW) symmetry breaking has been one of the main goals of the ATLAS experiment [1] research program at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, the breaking of the EW symmetry is realised by introducing a complex doublet scalar field which is related to the existence of a neutral particle, the Higgs boson. The Higgs scalar field is responsible of the mass of the other particles; the mass of its mediator, the Higgs boson, is the only free parameter in the theory. In 2012, the ATLAS and CMS collaborations discovered a new particle consistent with the SM Higgs boson and two years later measured its mass, in the H → γγ and H →ZZ* → 4l channels, to be mH=125.09±0.21 (stat) ±0.11 (sys) GeV with data collected in 2011 and 2012 (LHC Run 1). This document will cover the SM Higgs analyses performed with approximately 15 fb−1 of pp collision data collected until summer 2016 during the so-called Run 2 LHC data-taking at a center-of-mass energy ().