New Measurements of $ZZ$ Production Cross-Sections at the LHC

The ATLAS Collaboration has published new findings on the production of $ZZ$ bosons in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV. This research, detailed in their paper titled "Measurement of $ZZ$ production cross-sections in the four-lepton final state in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13.6$ TeV with the ATLAS experiment," focuses on the measurement of cross-sections for $ZZ$ production in events where both $Z$ bosons decay into four leptons (electrons and muons).

The data for this study were collected by the ATLAS detector during 2022, amounting to an integrated luminosity of 29 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis involved selecting events from the $ZZ \rightarrow 4\ell$ final states to determine both inclusive and differential cross-sections within a defined fiducial region. The inclusive cross-section was extrapolated to the total phase space, yielding a value of $16.8 \pm 1.1$ pb for the condition where the invariant mass of both $Z$ bosons falls between 66 and 116 GeV.

These results align well with predictions made by the Standard Model of particle physics, reinforcing its validity in describing the interactions of fundamental particles. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of electroweak processes and may have implications for future research in high-energy physics, particularly in exploring phenomena beyond the Standard Model.

For further details, the full paper can be accessed at arXiv:2311.09715.