A search is presented for production of dark matter particles recoiling against a leptonically decaying Z boson in 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with large missing transverse momentum and two oppositely-charged electrons or muons consistent with the decay of a Z boson are analyzed. No excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed. Limits are set on the mass scale of the contact interaction as a function of the dark matter particle mass using an effective field theory description of the interaction of dark matter with quarks or with Z bosons. Limits are also set on the coupling and mediator mass of a model in which the interaction is mediated by a scalar particle.
A search for heavy leptons decaying to a $Z$ boson and an electron or a muon is presented. The search is based on $pp$ collision data taken at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. Three high-transverse-momentum electrons or muons are selected, with two of them required to be consistent with originating from a $Z$ boson decay. No significant excess above Standard Model background predictions is observed, and 95% confidence level limits on the production cross section of high-mass trilepton resonances are derived. The results are interpreted in the context of vector-like lepton and type-III seesaw models. For the vector-like lepton model, most heavy lepton mass values in the range 114-176 GeV are excluded. For the type-III seesaw model, most mass values in the range 100-468 GeV are excluded.
The paper presents studies of Bose-Einstein Correlations (BEC) for pairs of like-sign charged particles measured in the kinematic range $p_{\rm T}>$ 100 MeV and $|\eta|<$ 2.5 in proton--proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 0.9 and 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The integrated luminosities are approximately 7 $\mu$b$^{-1}$, 190 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ and 12.4 nb$^{-1}$ for 0.9 TeV, 7 TeV minimum-bias and 7 TeV high-multiplicity data samples, respectively. The multiplicity dependence of the BEC parameters characterizing the correlation strength and the correlation source size are investigated for charged-particle multiplicities of up to 240. A saturation effect in the multiplicity dependence of the correlation source size is observed using the high-multiplicity 7 TeV data sample. The dependence of the BEC parameters on the average transverse momentum of the particle pair is also investigated.
The ATLAS experiment has performed extensive searches for the electroweak production of charginos, neutralinos and staus. This article summarizes and extends the search for electroweak supersymmetry with new analyses targeting scenarios not covered by previously published searches. New searches use vector-boson fusion production, initial-state radiation jets, and low-momentum lepton final states, as well as multivariate analysis techniques to improve the sensitivity to scenarios with small mass splittings and low-production cross-sections. Results are based on 20 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$=8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed. The new and existing searches are combined and interpreted in terms of 95% confidence-level exclusion limits in simplified models, where a single production process and decay mode is assumed, as well as within phenomenological supersymmetric models.
A search for high-mass resonances decaying into $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ final states using proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}= 8$ TeV produced by the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The data were recorded with the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.5-20.3 fb$^{-1}$. No statistically significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed; 95% credibility upper limits are set on the cross section times branching fraction of $Z^{\prime}$ resonances decaying into $\tau^+\tau^-$ pairs as a function of the resonance mass. As a result, $Z^{\prime}$ bosons of the Sequential Standard Model with masses less than 2.02 TeV are excluded at 95% credibility. The impact of the fermionic couplings on the $Z^{\prime}$ acceptance is investigated and limits are also placed on a $Z^{\prime}$ model that exhibits enhanced couplings to third-generation fermions.
A search is presented for narrow diboson resonances decaying to $WW$ or $WZ$ in the final state where one $W$ boson decays leptonically (to an electron or a muon plus a neutrino) and the other $W/Z$ boson decays hadronically. The analysis is performed using an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. No evidence for resonant diboson production is observed, and resonance masses below 700 GeV and 1490 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for the spin-2 Randall-Sundrum bulk graviton $G^*$ with coupling constant of 1.0 and the extended gauge model $W'$ boson respectively.
A search for new phenomena in LHC proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV was performed with the ATLAS detector using an integrated luminosity of 17.3 fb$^{-1}$. The angular distributions are studied in events with at least two jets; the highest dijet mass observed is 5.5 TeV. All angular distributions are consistent with the predictions of the Standard Model. In a benchmark model of quark contact interactions, a compositeness scale below 8.1 TeV in a destructive interference scenario and 12.0 TeV in a constructive interference scenario is excluded at 95 % CL; median expected limits are 8.9 TeV for the destructive interference scenario and 14.1 TeV for the constructive interference scenario.
Many extensions of the Standard Model predict the existence of charged heavy long-lived particles, such as $R$-hadrons or charginos. These particles, if produced at the Large Hadron Collider, should be moving non-relativistically and are therefore identifiable through the measurement of an anomalously large specific energy loss in the ATLAS pixel detector. Measuring heavy long-lived particles through their track parameters in the vicinity of the interaction vertex provides sensitivity to metastable particles with lifetimes from 0.6 ns to 30 ns. A search for such particles with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is presented, based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.4 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV. No significant deviation from the Standard Model background expectation is observed, and lifetime-dependent upper limits on $R$-hadrons and chargino production are set. Gluino $R$-hadrons with 10 ns lifetime and masses up to 1185 GeV are excluded at 95$\%$ confidence level, and so are charginos with 15 ns lifetime and masses up to 482 GeV.
ATLAS measurements of the azimuthal anisotropy in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76$ TeV are shown using a dataset of approximately 7 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ collected at the LHC in 2010. The measurements are performed for charged particles with transverse momenta $0.5<p_T<20$ GeV and in the pseudorapidity range $|\eta|<2.5$. The anisotropy is characterized by the Fourier coefficients, $v_n$, of the charged-particle azimuthal angle distribution for n = 2-4. The Fourier coefficients are evaluated using multi-particle cumulants calculated with the generating function method. Results on the transverse momentum, pseudorapidity and centrality dependence of the $v_n$ coefficients are presented. The elliptic flow, $v_2$, is obtained from the two-, four-, six- and eight-particle cumulants while higher-order coefficients, $v_3$ and $v_4$, are determined with two- and four-particle cumulants. Flow harmonics $v_n$ measured with four-particle cumulants are significantly reduced compared to the measurement involving two-particle cumulants. A comparison to $v_n$ measurements obtained using different analysis methods and previously reported by the LHC experiments is also shown. Results of measurements of flow fluctuations evaluated with multi-particle cumulants are shown as a function of transverse momentum and the collision centrality. Models of the initial spatial geometry and its fluctuations fail to describe the flow fluctuations measurements.
A measurement of the total $pp$ cross section at the LHC at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV is presented. In a special run with high-$\beta^{\star}$ beam optics, an integrated luminosity of 80 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ was accumulated in order to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable $t$. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the $|t|$ range from 0.01 GeV$^2$ to 0.1 GeV$^2$ to extrapolate to $|t|\rightarrow 0$, the total cross section, $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X)$, is measured via the optical theorem to be: $$\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(pp\rightarrow X) = 95.35 \; \pm 0.38 \; ({\mbox{stat.}}) \pm 1.25 \; ({\mbox{exp.}}) \pm 0.37 \; (\mbox{extr.}) \; \mbox{mb},$$ where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation to $|t|\rightarrow 0$. In addition, the slope of the elastic cross section at small $|t|$ is determined to be $B = 19.73 \pm 0.14 \; ({\mbox{stat.}}) \pm 0.26 \; ({\mbox{syst.}}) \; \mbox{GeV}^{-2}$.
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