Observation of VVZ production at s=13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A search for the production of three massive vector bosons, $VVZ(V=W,Z)$, in proton–proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV is performed using data with an integrated luminosity of 140 fb⁻¹ recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events produced in the leptonic final states $WWZ\to \ell \nu \ell \nu \ell \ell$ ($\ell =e,\mu$), $WZZ\to \ell \nu \ell \ell \ell \ell$, $ZZZ\to \ell \ell \ell \ell \ell \ell$, and the semileptonic final states $WWZ\to qq\ell \nu \ell \ell$ and $WZZ\to \ell \nu qq\ell \ell$, are analysed. The measured cross section for the $pp\to VVZ$ process is ${660}_{-90}^{+93}{\left(\text{stat.}\right)}_{-81}^{+88}\left(\text{syst.}\right)$ fb, and the observed (expected) significance is 6.4 (4.7) standard deviations, representing the observation of VVZ production. In addition, the measured cross section for the $pp\to WWZ$ process is $442\pm 94{\left(\text{stat.}\right)}_{-52}^{+60}\left(\text{syst.}\right)$ fb, and the observed (expected) significance is 4.4 (3.6) standard deviations, representing evidence of WWZ production. The measured cross sections are consistent with the Standard Model predictions. Constraints on physics beyond the Standard Model are also derived in the effective field theory framework by setting limits on Wilson coefficients for dimension-8 operators describing anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings.