Search for heavy particles in the b-tagged dijet mass distribution with additional b-tagged jets in proton-proton collisions at p root s=13 TeV with the ATLAS experiment

• Published in: Physical review. D 2022, Vol.105 (1)
• Main Authors: Aad, G., Lund-Jensen, Bengt, Ohm, Christian, Ripellino, Giulia, Shaheen, Rabia, Shope, David R., Strandberg, Jonas, Zwalinski, L.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2470-0029; 2470-0010
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.105.012001

A search optimized for new heavy particles decaying to two b-quarks and produced in association with additional b-quarks is reported. The sensitivity is improved by b-tagging at least one lower-pT jet in addition to the two highest-pT jets. The data used in this search correspond to an integrated luminosity of 103 fb-1 collected with a dedicated trijet trigger during the 2017 and 2018 pffisffi = 13 TeV proton-proton collision runs with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The search looks for resonant peaks in the b-tagged dijet invariant mass spectrum over a smoothly falling background. The background is estimated with an innovative data-driven method based on orthonormal functions. The observed b-tagged dijet invariant mass spectrum is compatible with the background-only hypothesis. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on a heavy vector-boson production cross section times branching ratio to a pair of b-quarks are derived.