Distributions sensitive to the underlying event are studied in events containing one or more charged-particle jets produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). These measurements reflect 800 inverse microbarns of data taken during 2010. Jets are reconstructed using the antikt algorithm with radius parameter R varying between 0.2 and 1.0. Distributions of the charged-particle multiplicity, the scalar sum of the transverse momentum of charged particles, and the average charged-particle pT are measured as functions of pT^JET in regions transverse to and opposite the leading jet for 4 GeV < pT^JET < 100 GeV. In addition, the R-dependence of the mean values of these observables is studied. In the transverse region, both the multiplicity and the scalar sum of the transverse momentum at fixed pT^JET vary significantly with R, while the average charged-particle transverse momentum has a minimal dependence on R. Predictions from several Monte Carlo tunes have been compared to the data; the predictions from Pythia 6, based on tunes that have been determined using LHC data, show reasonable agreement with the data, including the dependence on R. Comparisons with other generators indicate that additional tuning of soft-QCD parameters is necessary for these generators. The measurements presented here provide a testing ground for further development of the Monte Carlo models.

A measurement is presented of the phi to K+K- production cross section at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 383 mub-1, collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Selection of phi(1020) mesons is based on the identification of charged kaons by their energy loss in the pixel detector. The differential cross section is measured as a function of the transverse momentum, pTphi, and rapidity, |yphi|, of the phi(1020) meson in the fiducial region 500 < pTphi< 1200 MeV, |yphi| < 0.8, kaon pTK> 230 MeV and kaon momentum pK< 800 MeV.The integrated phi(1020)-meson production cross section in this fiducial range is measured to be s(phi K+K-) = 570 pm 8 (stat) pm 66 (syst) pm 20 (lumi) mub.

The analysis of the momentum difference between charged hadrons in high-energy proton-proton collisions is performed in order to study coherent particle production. The observed correlation pattern agrees with a model of a helical QCD string fragmenting into a chain of ground-state hadrons. A threshold momentum difference in the production of adjacent pairs of charged hadrons is observed, in agreement with model predictions. The presence of low-mass hadron chains also explains the emergence of charge-combination-dependent two-particle correlations commonly attributed to Bose-Einstein interference. The data sample consists of 190 inverse microbarns of minimum bias events collected with proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV in the early low-luminosity data taking with the ATLAS detector at the LHC.

We report a study of final states containing a W boson and hadronic jets, produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC and comprise the full 2010 data sample of 36 pb^-1. Cross sections are determined using both the electron and muon decay modes of the W boson and are presented as a function of inclusive jet multiplicity, N_jet, for up to five jets. At each multiplicity, cross sections are presented as a function of jet transverse momentum, the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the charged lepton, missing transverse momentum, and all jets, the invariant mass spectra of jets, and the rapidity distributions of various combinations of leptons and final-state jets. The results, corrected for all detector effects and for all backgrounds such as diboson and top quark pair production, are compared with particle-level predictions from perturbative QCD. Leading-order multiparton event generators, normalized to the NNLO total cross section for inclusive W-boson production, describe the data reasonably well for all measured inclusive jet multiplicities. Next-to-leading-order calculations from MCFM, studied here for N_jet >= 2, and BlackHat-Sherpa, studied here for N_jet >= 4, are found to be mostly in good agreement with the data.

Inclusive four-jet events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV are analysed for the presence of hard double-parton scattering using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 37.3 pb$^{-1}$, collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The contribution of hard double-parton scattering to the production of four-jet events is extracted using an artificial neural network, assuming that hard double-parton scattering can be approximated by an uncorrelated overlaying of dijet events. For events containing at least four jets with transverse momentum $p_{\mathrm{T}} \geq 20$ GeV and pseudorapidity $\eta \leq 4.4$, and at least one having $p_{\mathrm{T}} \geq 42.5$ GeV, the contribution of hard double-parton scattering is estimated to be $f_{\mathrm{DPS}} = 0.092 ^{+0.005}_{-0.011} (\mathrm{stat.}) ^{+0.033}_{-0.037} (\mathrm{syst.})$. After combining this measurement with those of the inclusive dijet and four-jet cross-sections in the appropriate phase space regions, the effective overlap area between the interacting protons, $\sigma_{\mathrm{eff}}$, was determined to be $\sigma_{\mathrm{eff}} = 14.9 ^{+1.2}_{-1.0} (\mathrm{stat.}) ^{+5.1}_{-3.8} (\mathrm{syst.})$ mb. This result is consistent within the quoted uncertainties with previous measurements of $\sigma_{\mathrm{eff}}$, performed at centre-of-mass energies between 63 GeV and 8 TeV using various final states, and it corresponds to $21^{+7}_{-6}$% of the total inelastic cross-section measured at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The distributions of the observables sensitive to the contribution of hard double-parton scattering, corrected for detector effects, are also provided.

Jet shapes have been measured in inclusive jet production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using 3 pb^{-1} of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed using the anti-kt algorithm with transverse momentum 30 GeV < pT < 600 GeV and rapidity in the region |y| < 2.8. The data are corrected for detector effects and compared to several leading-order QCD matrix elements plus parton shower Monte Carlo predictions, including different sets of parameters tuned to model fragmentation processes and underlying event contributions in the final state. The measured jets become narrower with increasing jet transverse momentum and the jet shapes present a moderate jet rapidity dependence. Within QCD, the data test a variety of perturbative and non-perturbative effects. In particular, the data show sensitivity to the details of the parton shower, fragmentation, and underlying event models in the Monte Carlo generators. For an appropriate choice of the parameters used in these models, the data are well described.

Results of three searches are presented for the production of supersymmetric particles decaying into final states with missing transverse momentum and exactly two isolated leptons, e or mu. The analysis uses a data sample collected during the first half of 2011 that corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 1 fb^-1 of sqrt{s} = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Opposite-sign and same-sign dilepton events are separately studied, with no deviations from the Standard Model expectation observed. Additionally, in opposite- sign events, a search is made for an excess of same-flavour over different-flavour lepton pairs. Effective production cross sections in excess of 9.9 fb for opposite-sign events containing supersymmetric particles with missing transverse momentum greater than 250 GeV are excluded at 95% CL. For same-sign events containing supersymmetric particles with missing transverse momentum greater than 100 GeV, effective production cross sections in excess of 14.8 fb are excluded at 95% CL. The latter limit is interpreted in a simplified weak gaugino production model excluding chargino masses up to 200 GeV.

Searches for scalar leptoquarks pair-produced in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider are performed by the ATLAS experiment. A data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ is used. Final states containing two electrons or two muons and two or more jets are studied, as are states with one electron or muon, missing transverse momentum and two or more jets. No statistically significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed. The observed and expected lower limits on the leptoquark mass at 95% confidence level extend up to 1.29 TeV and 1.23 TeV for first- and second-generation leptoquarks, respectively, as postulated in the minimal Buchm\"uller-R\"uckl-Wyler model, assuming a branching ratio into a charged lepton and a quark of 50%. In addition, measurements of particle-level fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for the $Z\rightarrow ee$, $Z\rightarrow\mu\mu$ and $t\bar{t}$ processes in several regions related to the search control regions. Predictions from a range of generators are compared with the measurements, and good agreement is seen for many of the observables. However, the predictions for the $Z\rightarrow\ell\ell$ measurements in observables sensitive to jet energies disagree with the data.

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.

The results of a search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum and heavy flavour jets using an integrated luminosity corresponding to 2.05 fb^-1 of pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. No significant excess is observed with respect to the prediction for Standard Model processes. Results are interpreted in a variety of R-parity conserving models in which scalar bottoms and tops are the only scalar quarks to appear in the gluino decay cascade, and in an SO(10) model framework. Gluino masses up to 600-900 GeV are excluded, depending on the model considered.