Observation of a cross-section enhancement near the $t\bar{t}$ production threshold in $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A measurement of $t\bar{t}$ production is presented in the invariant-mass region near the pair production threshold, $m_{t\bar{t}}\sim 345$ GeV, in final states with two charged leptons and multiple jets. The measurement is based on $140{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data are compared to two models of $t\bar{t}$ production: a baseline model including only perturbative QCD predictions for the hard process at approximate next-to-next-to leading order accuracy in the strong coupling, and an extended model that, in addition, incorporates non-relativistic QCD simulations that also include the formation of colour-singlet quasi-bound-states near the $t\bar{t}$ threshold. The agreement between the data and the models is quantified via a profile-likelihood fit to the reconstructed $m_{t\bar{t}}$ distributions, in bins of two angular observables sensitive to spin-correlations in the $t\bar{t}$ system. An excess of events is observed over the baseline perturbative QCD prediction, with an observed significance over $8$ standard deviations. This excess is consistent with the formation of colour-singlet and spin-singlet $S$-wave quasi-bound $t\bar{t}$ states, as predicted by non-relativistic QCD, and corresponds to an observed cross-section of $9.3_{-1.3}^{+1.4}$ pb.

64 pages in total, author list starting page 47, 12 figures, 4 tables, published at Reports on Progress in Physics. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at <https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/TOPQ-2025-11/> v2: updated metadata