Observation of ZZ production via Vector Boson Scattering in ATLAS
Abstract This document presents measurement results of the ZZ production via Vector Boson Scattering interactions in 139fb −1 of data recorded by the ATLAS detector from pp collisions at s = 13 TeV during LHC Run-II (2015-2018). In this study, 127 candidate events with a fully leptonic final state (ℓℓℓℓjj) have been observed and another 82 events for ℓℓvvjj final state, with a contribution of the purely electroweak ZZjj process estimated to be 20.6 ± 2.5 and 12.3 ± 0.7 events respectively. The measured cross sections were found to be 1.27 ± 0.14fb (1.22 ± 0.35fb) for ℓℓℓℓjj (ℓℓvvjj) in their respective fiducial regions. Using multivariant methods, the EW production of ZZjj events (combining the ℓℓℓℓjj and ℓℓvvjj channels) was measured to have a signal strength of 1.35± 0.34, which leads to a rejection of the no-electroweak hypothesis with a statistical significance of 5.5σ.