W boson

First ATLAS measurement of W and Z boson production using Run-3 data

The ATLAS Collaboration has just released its first measurements using LHC Run-3 data of the production rates (“cross sections”) of W and Z bosons.

28 March 2024

Exploring the Weak Force with ATLAS

As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the observation of neutral currents and the 40th anniversary of the W/Z boson discovery, we take a look back on the 13 years of ATLAS research into the weak force.

30 November 2023

Three’s no crowd: ATLAS measures tri-boson production

The ATLAS Collaboration has announced the first observation of two different tri-boson processes: the simultaneous production of a W boson with two photons (Wγγ) and the production of a W boson, a Z boson and a photon (WZγ). The production of a Z boson with two photons (Zγγ) was first observed in 2016 using data from LHC Run 1 (2010-2013). In a new publication, the ATLAS Collaboration expanded the scope of this initial observation using Run 2 data.

18 August 2023

New high-precision measurements of W and Z boson properties

At the 2023 LHCP conference, ATLAS physicists presented precise new measurements of the W± and Z boson transverse momentum distributions at two centre-of-mass energies: 13 TeV and, for the first time, 5.02 TeV. These results give unprecedented information on these transverse-momentum shape spectra, providing crucial input for other studies of these bosons.

25 May 2023

New ATLAS result weighs in on the W boson

The ATLAS Collaboration has measured the W boson mass to be 80360 MeV with an uncertainty of 16 MeV – in agreement with the Standard Model.

23 March 2023

Improved ATLAS result weighs in on the W boson

The new ATLAS measurement concurs with, and is more precise than, all previous W mass measurements except one – the latest measurement from the CDF experiment at the Tevatron, a former accelerator at Fermilab.

22 March 2023

ATLAS casts wide net in search for new high-mass particles

The ATLAS Collaboration has performed an extensive search for new, high-mass particles that can decay to a pair of W bosons. As many theoretical models predict the existence of such high-mass particles, physicists were able to investigate the validity of several models at once across a large energy range.

1 December 2022

ATLAS measures joint polarisation of W and Z bosons

In a new result presented at the ICHEP 2022 conference, ATLAS physicists have been able to observe events with both a W and Z boson simultaneously polarised longitudinally for the very first time.

7 July 2022

ATLAS reports first observation of WWW production

The ATLAS Collaboration announces the first observation of “WWW production”: the simultaneous creation of three massive W bosons in high-energy LHC collisions.

26 July 2021

Unraveling Nature's secrets: vector boson scattering at the LHC

In 2017, the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations announced the detection of a never-before-observed process: vector boson scattering.

22 September 2020

ATLAS observes W-boson pair production from light colliding with light

The ATLAS Collaboration has announced the first observation of two W bosons produced from the scattering of two photons — particles of light – at the International Conference on High-Energy Physics (ICHEP 2020).

5 August 2020

First high-precision measurement of the mass of the W boson at the LHC

In a paper published today in the European Physical Journal C, the ATLAS Collaboration reports the first high-precision measurement at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of the mass of the W boson. This is one of two elementary particles that mediate the weak interaction – one of the forces that govern the behaviour of matter in our universe. The reported result gives a value of 80370±19 MeV for the W mass, which is consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model of Particle Physics, the theory that describes known particles and their interactions.

12 February 2018

How strange is the proton?

What precision measurement of the inclusive W+, W− and Z/γ∗ production cross sections can tell us about the true nature of the proton.

25 January 2017

Measuring the W boson mass

The ATLAS collaboration is now reporting the first measurement of the W mass using LHC proton-proton collisions data at a centre-of-mass energy at 7 TeV. The ATLAS result matches the best single-experiment measurement of the W mass performed by the CDF collaboration.

13 December 2016

Double the bosons, double the excitement

ATLAS has performed measurements of boson-pair production using data from 13 TeV proton-proton collisions that began in 2015. The cross-section (a measure of the production frequency) of the WW boson pair production was measured and was compared to a previous measurement in 8 TeV collisions.

5 August 2016

Something went bump in the night

ATLAS has published hundreds of studies of LHC data, with the Higgs boson discovery being perhaps the best known. Amongst the Run 1 searches there was one which stood out: the diboson excess.

16 June 2016

A peek inside the proton…

When the protons from the LHC collide, they sometimes produce W and Z bosons, the massive carriers of the weak force responsible for radioactive decays. These bosons are produced in abundance at the LHC and ATLAS physicists have now precisely measured their production rates using 13 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded in 2015.

16 June 2016

Probing inside the proton

W and Z bosons are the massive carriers of the weak force, responsible for radioactive decays. These bosons also couple closely to the Higgs boson. W and Z bosons are produced at a large rate in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, where ATLAS physicists have now measured the rates for W and Z boson production using 13 TeV proton-proton collisions

17 August 2015

ATLAS ready to “boost” Run 2 physics

A new set of techniques is being used to identify highly energetic top quarks, W and Z bosons, and Higgs bosons decaying to quarks and, ultimately, to hadrons measured in ATLAS. Signatures of these “boosted” Standard Model particles are particularly useful when searching for massive new particles and measuring processes at high energies.

12 August 2015

Of mesons and bosons

ATLAS is ready for detailed physics studies. The experiment used early data collected from the LHC’s Run 2 to calibrate its detectors. Measurements of the production and leptonic decay of certain particle resonances have shown that the detectors and software are working as expected.

24 July 2015

The Art of Rediscovery

When I tell people I’m a particle physicist, one of the most frequent questions I get asked is: “So, have you discovered anything?” Funnily, I’ve spent much of the past two years trying to rediscover something that’s already been seen before. In today’s world, which fetishizes the New, this may seem slightly lame, but just because we’ve discovered something, doesn’t mean we’ve fully understood it.

7 January 2015

New ATLAS precision measurements of the Higgs boson: Observation of WW decay

The Standard Model makes many different predictions regarding the production and decay properties of the Higgs boson, most of which can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Since the discovery, experimentalists from the ATLAS collaboration have analysed the complete dataset recorded in 2011 and 2012, have improved the calibration of the detector, and have increased substantially the sensitivity of their analyses.

7 October 2014

ATLAS finds evidence for the rare electroweak W±W± production

The Standard Model of particle physics has been extremely successful in predicting a vast variety of phenomena – so successful, that it is easy to forget that some of its predictions have not yet been verified. A very important one, related intimately to electroweak symmetry breaking, is that the gauge bosons (γ, W and Z) can interact with each other through quartic interactions.

10 September 2014

The WW cross-section: a high flyer

The production of pairs of heavy bosons, such as two Z bosons, a Z and a W boson, or the more challenging pair of W bosons (WW), are processes that particle physicists are passionate about because they cover a rich spectrum of phenomena. The WW channel, in particular, represents a substantial experimental challenge. In the events considered for this measurement, each W boson decays into an electron or a muon plus a neutrino that remains undetected and is reconstructed through the presence of missing energy in the event.

8 July 2014

The production of W bosons in association with jets

The production of a W boson in association with “jets” of particles initiated by quarks or gluons (“W+jets” events) is an important signature to test quantum chromodynamics, the theory of strong interactions. A new measurement reported by ATLAS focuses on studying the properties of the jets in a large data sample of W+jets events.

5 July 2014

New evidence for top quark pairs produced with W or Z bosons

Evidence for the production of a W or Z boson together with a top quark pair, referred to as tt̄W and tt̄Z processes, has been found in the ATLAS analysis of the 8 TeV data from the LHC’s first run.

3 July 2014

Higgs Mass to String Balls

ATLAS presented new results at the Large Hadron Collider Physics (LHCP) Conference in Columbia University, New York, 2 to 7 June. Many new searches and improved measurements were presented, among which were an updated Higgs boson mass measurement, a search for double Higgs boson production and new searches for Supersymmetry and exotic phenomena.

6 June 2014

Unread section opened in the Standard Model book

While others are worrying that new physics might be running out of corners (see Eve Le Ménédeu's blog) we should not forget that even within the book of the Standard Model there are completely unread chapters. The Standard Model draws its success from the fascinating fact that its basic energy density formula, called Lagrangian, is uniquely defined by just specifying three fundamental symmetries.

30 March 2014

What if there is no Higgs boson?

Physicists are confident they will soon be able to answer a fundamental question at the LHC: how do particles acquire mass? The simplest answer, the one given in the Standard Model of the fundamental particles, is that a single particle, the Higgs boson, endows the other particles and itself with mass. The Higgs boson does this by means of the "Higgs mechanism", which involves breaking a symmetry that would leave all Standard Model particles massless if it were not broken. However the Higgs boson is not the only way the Higgs mechanism might work.

30 November 2011

One in a few million

ATLAS has been designed to detect rare events in high energy proton-proton collisions. ATLAS ultimate goal is to measure events as rare as one in several thousand billions, but we are modest (for the time being) waiting for the luminosity to rise.

24 April 2010