A search for scalar particles decaying via narrow resonances into two photons in the mass range $65-600$ GeV is performed using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The recently discovered Higgs boson is treated as a background. No significant evidence for an additional signal is observed. The results are presented as limits at the 95 % confidence level on the production cross-section of a scalar boson times branching ratio into two photons, in a fiducial volume where the reconstruction efficiency is approximately independent of the event topology. The upper limits set extend over a considerably wider mass range than previous searches.

This Letter presents the first study of $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}jj$, same-electric-charge diboson production in association with two jets, using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with two reconstructed same-charge leptons ($e^\pm e^\pm$, $e^\pm \mu^\pm$, and $\mu^\pm \mu^\pm$) and two or more jets are analyzed. Production cross sections are measured in two fiducial regions, with different sensitivities to the electroweak and strong production mechanisms. First evidence for $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}jj$ production and electroweak-only $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}jj$ production is observed with a significance of $4.5$ and $3.6$ standard deviations respectively. The measured production cross sections are in agreement with Standard Model predictions. Limits at 95% confidence level are set on anomalous quartic gauge couplings.

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. The analysis is performed in the $H \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ decay channel using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The $pp\rightarrow H \rightarrow \gamma\gamma$ fiducial cross section is measured to be $43.2 \pm 9.4 (stat) {}^{+3.2}_{-2.9} (syst) \pm 1.2 (lumi)$ fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4 GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations.

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections of Higgs boson production in the ${H \rightarrow ZZ ^{*}\rightarrow 4\ell}$ decay channel are presented. The cross sections are determined within a fiducial phase space and corrected for detection efficiency and resolution effects. They are based on 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data, produced at $\sqrt{s}$=8 TeV centre-of-mass energy at the LHC and recorded by the ATLAS detector. The differential measurements are performed in bins of transverse momentum and rapidity of the four-lepton system, the invariant mass of the subleading lepton pair and the decay angle of the leading lepton pair with respect to the beam line in the four-lepton rest frame, as well as the number of jets and the transverse momentum of the leading jet. The measured cross sections are compared to selected theoretical calculations of the Standard Model expectations. No significant deviation from any of the tested predictions is found.

The production of $Z$ bosons with one or two isolated high-energy photons is studied using $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV. The analyses use a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector during the 2012 LHC data taking. The $Z\gamma$ and $Z\gamma\gamma$ production cross sections are measured with leptonic ($e^{+}e^{-}$, $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$, $\nu\bar{\nu}$) decays of the $Z$ boson, in extended fiducial regions defined in terms of the lepton and photon acceptance. They are then compared to cross-section predictions from the Standard Model, where the sources of the photons are radiation off initial-state quarks and radiative $Z$-boson decay to charged leptons, and from fragmentation of final-state quarks and gluons into photons. The yields of events with photon transverse energy $E_T >$ 250 GeV from $\ell^{+}\ell^{-}\gamma$ events and with $E_T >$ 400 GeV from $\nu\bar{\nu}\gamma$ events are used to search for anomalous triple gauge-boson couplings $ZZ\gamma$ and $Z\gamma\gamma$. The yields of events with diphoton invariant mass $m_{\gamma\gamma} >$ 200 GeV from $\ell^{+}\ell^{-}\gamma\gamma$ events and with $m_{\gamma\gamma} > $ 300 GeV from $\nu\bar{\nu}\gamma\gamma$ events are used to search for anomalous quartic gauge-boson couplings $ZZ\gamma\gamma$ and $Z\gamma\gamma\gamma$. No deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed and limits are placed on parameters used to describe anomalous triple and quartic gauge-boson couplings.

Distributions of transverse momentum $p_T^{ll}$ and the angular variable $\phi^*_\eta$ of Drell--Yan lepton pairs are measured in 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Measurements in electron-pair and muon-pair final states are corrected for detector effects and combined. Compared to previous measurements in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV, these new measurements benefit from a larger data sample and improved control of systematic uncertainties. Measurements are performed in bins of lepton-pair mass above, around and below the Z-boson mass peak. The data are compared to predictions from perturbative and resummed QCD calculations. For values of $\phi^*_\eta < 1$ the predictions from the Monte Carlo generator ResBos are generally consistent with the data within the theoretical uncertainties. However, at larger values of $\phi^*_\eta$ this is not generally the case. Monte Carlo generators based on the parton-shower approach are unable to describe the data over the full range of $p_T^{ll}$ and the fixed-order prediction of DYNNLO falls below the data at high values of $p_T^{ll}$. ResBos and the parton-shower Monte Carlo generators provide a much better description of the evolution of the $\phi^*_\eta$ and $p_T^{ll}$ distributions as a function of lepton-pair mass and rapidity.

The $W$ boson angular distribution in events with high transverse momentum jets is measured using data collected by the ATLAS experiment from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=$ 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The focus is on the contributions to $W$ + jets processes from real $W$ emission, which is achieved by studying events where a muon is observed close to a high transverse momentum jet. At small angular separations, these contributions are expected to be large. Various theoretical models of this process are compared to the data in terms of the absolute cross-section and the angular distributions of the muon from the leptonic $W$ decay.

A measurement of the $ZZ$ production in the $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ channels $(\ell = e, \mu)$ in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2012 is presented. The fiducial cross sections for $ZZ\to\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $ZZ\to \ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ are measured in selected phase-space regions. The total cross section for $ZZ$ events produced with both $Z$ bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV is measured from the combination of the two channels to be $7.3\pm0.4\textrm{(stat)}\pm0.3\textrm{(syst)}\pm0.2\textrm{(lumi)}$ pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of $6.6^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ pb. The differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. The differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading $Z$ boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in $ZZ$ production.

A measurement of the splitting scales occuring in the $k_\mathrm{t}$ jet-clustering algorithm is presented for final states containing a $Z$ boson. The measurement is done using 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. The measurement is based on charged-particle track information, which is measured with excellent precision in the $p_\mathrm{T}$ region relevant for the transition between the perturbative and the non-perturbative regimes. The data distributions are corrected for detector effects, and are found to deviate from state-of-the-art predictions in various regions of the observables.

This paper reports a search for triboson $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production in two decay channels ($W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}\rightarrow \ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\mp}\nu$ and $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}\rightarrow \ell^{\pm}\nu\ell^{\pm}\nu{}jj$ with $\ell=e, \mu$) in proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with exactly three charged leptons, or two leptons with the same electric charge in association with two jets, are selected. The total number of events observed in data is consistent with the Standard Model (SM) predictions. The observed 95 % confidence level upper limit on the SM $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production cross section is found to be 730 fb with an expected limit of 560 fb in the absence of SM $W^{\pm}W^{\pm}W^{\mp}$ production. Limits are also set on $WWWW$ anomalous quartic gauge couplings.