Observation of ZZ production via Vector Boson Scattering in ATLAS

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.

Studies on dimension-eight genuine Quartic Boson Coupling operators

Vector Boson Scattering (VBS) processes provide a great source of information on the structure of the Quartic Gauge Boson Couplings (QGCs). The Standard Model allows self interactions of the charged vector gauge bosons, although vertices with neutral-only bosons are forbidden. In this paper we use Monte Carlo samples containing VBS events with two Z-bosons in association with two jets, and we present preliminary studies for the setting of constraints on anomalous quartic couplings. In these studies we investigate typical kinematic variables and we classify them according to their sensitivity to aQGC effects. Finally, we evaluate the cross-section enhancement by each one of the dimension-eight QGC operators in the ZZjj channel.

Measuring Higgs boson self-couplings with 2 → 3 VBS processes

We study the measurement of Higgs boson self-couplings through 2 → 3 vector boson scattering (VBS) processes in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) at both proton and lepton colliders. The SMEFT contribution to the amplitude of the 2 → 3 VBS processes, taking WLWL → WLWLh and WLWL → hhh as examples, exhibits enhancement with the energy $$ \frac{{\mathcal{A}}^{\mathrm{BSM}}}{{\mathcal{A}}^{\mathrm{SM}}}\sim \frac{E^2}{\Lambda^2} $$ A BSM A SM ~ E 2 Λ 2 , which indicates the sensitivity of these processes to the related dimension-six operators in SMEFT. Simulation of the full processes at both hadron and lepton colliders with a variety of collision energies are performed to estimate the allowed region on c6 and $$ {c}_{\Phi_1} $$ c Φ 1 . Especially we find that, with the help of exclusively choosing longitudinal polarizations in the final states and suitable pT cuts, WWh process is as important as the more widely studied triple Higgs production (hhh) in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings. Our analysis indicates that these processes can play important roles in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings at future 100 TeV pp colliders and muon colliders. However, their cross sections are generally tiny at low energy machines, which makes them much more challenging to explore.

Extract the energy scale of anomalous γγ → W+W− scattering in the vector boson scattering process using artificial neural networks

As a model independent approach to search for the signals of new physics (NP) beyond the Standard Model (SM), the SM effective field theory (SMEFT) draws a lot of attention recently. The energy scale of a process is an important parameter in the study of an EFT such as the SMEFT. However, for the processes at a hadron collider with neutrinos in the final states, the energy scales are difficult to reconstruct. In this paper, we study the energy scale of anomalous γγ → W+W− scattering in the vector boson scattering (VBS) process pp → jjℓ+ℓ−ν$$ \overline{\nu} $$ ν ¯ at the large hadron collider (LHC) using artificial neural networks (ANNs). We find that the ANN is a powerful tool to reconstruct the energy scale of γγ → W+W− scattering. The factors affecting the effects of ANNs are also studied. In addition, we make an attempt to interpret the ANN and arrive at an approximate formula which has only five fitting parameters and works much better than the approximation derived from kinematic analysis. With the help of ANN approach, the unitarity bound is applied as a cut on the energy scale of γγ → W+W− scattering, which is found to has a significant suppressive effect on signal events. The sensitivity of the process pp → jjℓ+ℓ−ν$$ \overline{\nu} $$ ν ¯ to anomalous γγWW couplings and the expected constraints on the coefficients at current and possible future LHC are also studied.

Effective field theory versus UV-complete model: vector boson scattering as a case study

Effective field theories (EFT) are commonly used to parameterize effects of BSM physics in vector boson scattering (VBS). For Wilson coefficients which are large enough to produce presently observable effects, the validity range of the EFT represents only a fraction of the energy range covered by the LHC, however. In order to shed light on possible extrapolations into the high energy region, a class of UV-complete toy models, with extra SU(2) multiplets of scalars or of fermions with vector-like weak couplings, is considered. By calculating the Wilson coefficients up to energy-dimension eight, and full one-loop contributions to VBS due to the heavy multiplets, the EFT approach, with and without unitarization at high energy, is compared to the perturbative prediction. For high multiplicities, e.g. nonets of fermions, the toy models predict sizable effects in transversely polarized VBS, but only outside the validity range of the EFT. At lower energies, dimension-eight operators are needed for an adequate description of the models, providing another example that dimension-eight can be more important than dimension-six operators. A simplified VBFNLO implementation is used to estimate sensitivity of VBS to such BSM effects at the LHC. Unitarization captures qualitative features of the toy models at high energy but significantly underestimates signal cross sections in the threshold region of the new particles.