Precise measurement of the $$t\bar{t}$$ production cross-section and lepton differential distributions in $$ e\mu $$ dilepton events from $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$ pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

Journal article

The inclusive top quark pair (tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$) cross-section σtt¯$$\sigma _{t\bar{t}}$$ has been measured in proton–proton collisions at s=13TeV$$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$, using 140fb-1$$140\,{\text {fb}^{-1}} $$ of data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Using events with an opposite-charge eμ$$e\mu $$ pair and b-tagged jets, the cross-section is measured to be: σtt¯=829.3±1.3(stat)±8.0(syst)±7.3(lumi)±1.9(beam)pb,$$\begin{aligned} \sigma _{t\bar{t}} & = 829.3\pm 1.3\,\mathrm {(stat)}\ \pm 8.0\,\mathrm {(syst)}\ \pm 7.3\,\mathrm {(lumi)}\ \\ & \quad \pm 1.9\,\mathrm {(beam)}\,\textrm{pb}, \end{aligned}$$where the uncertainties reflect the limited size of the data sample, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity, and the proton beam energy, giving a total uncertainty of 1.3%. The result is used to determine the top quark pole mass via the dependence of the predicted cross-section on mtpole$${m_{t}^\textrm{pole}}$$, giving mtpole=172.8-1.7+1.5$${m_{t}^\textrm{pole}}=172.8^{+1.5}_{-1.7}$$ GeV$$\text {GeV}$$. The same event sample is used to measure absolute and normalised differential cross-sections for the tt¯→eμνν¯bb¯$$t\bar{t} \rightarrow e\mu \nu \bar{\nu }b\bar{b} $$ process as a function of single-lepton and dilepton kinematic variables. Complementary measurements of eμbb¯$$e\mu b\bar{b} $$ production, treating both tt¯$$t\bar{t}$$ and Wt events as signal, are also provided. Both sets of differential cross-sections are compared to the predictions of various Monte Carlo event generators, demonstrating that the state-of-the-art generators Powheg MiNNLO and Powhegbb4l describe the data better than Powheghvq.

Authors: Aad, G; Aakvaag, E; Abbott, B; Abdelhameed, S; Abeling, K

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: SpringerOpen
• Journal: The European Physical Journal C
• Volume: 86
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 470
• Publication date: 2026-05-05
• DOI: 10.1140/epjc/s10052-026-15311-0
• EISSN: 1434-6052
• ISSN: 1434-6044
• Language: English
• Keywords: Atlas (anatomy); Lepton; Atlas detector; Hadron; Detector; Large Hadron Collider