A search for resonant and non-resonant pair production of Higgs bosons in the $b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$ final state is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data with $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. The semileptonic and fully hadronic decays of the $\tau$-lepton pair are considered. No significant excess above the expected background is observed in the data. The cross-section times branching ratio for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is constrained to be less than 30.9 fb, 12.7 times the Standard Model expectation, at 95% confidence level. The data are also analyzed to probe resonant Higgs boson pair production, constraining a model with an extended Higgs sector based on two doublets and a Randall-Sundrum bulk graviton model. Upper limits are placed on the resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section times branching ratio, excluding resonances $X$ in the mass range $305~{\rm GeV} < m_X < 402~{\rm GeV}$ in the simplified hMSSM minimal supersymmetric model for $\tan\beta=2$ and excluding bulk Randall-Sundrum gravitons $G_{\mathrm{KK}}$ in the mass range $325~{\rm GeV} < m_{G_{\mathrm{KK}}} < 885~{\rm GeV}$ for $k/\overline{M}_{\mathrm{Pl}} = 1$.

A search for supersymmetry in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying $\tau$-lepton is presented. Two exclusive final states with either exactly one or at least two $\tau$-leptons are considered. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. No significant excess is observed over the Standard Model expectation. At 95% confidence level, model-independent upper limits on the cross section are set and exclusion limits are provided for two signal scenarios: a simplified model of gluino pair production with $\tau$-rich cascade decays, and a model with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB). In the simplified model, gluino masses up to 2000 GeV are excluded for low values of the mass of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), while LSP masses up to 1000 GeV are excluded for gluino masses around 1400 GeV. In the GMSB model, values of the supersymmetry-breaking scale are excluded below 110 TeV for all values of $\tan\beta$ in the range $2 \leq \tan\beta \leq 60$, and below 120 TeV for $\tan\beta>30$.

A search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles is performed in two-lepton and three-lepton final states using recursive jigsaw reconstruction. The search uses data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment in $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton--proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. Chargino-neutralino pair production, with decays via W/Z bosons, is studied in final states involving leptons and jets and missing transverse momentum for scenarios with large and intermediate mass-splittings between the parent particle and lightest supersymmetric particle, as well as for the scenario where this mass splitting is close to the mass of the Z boson. The latter case is challenging since the vector bosons are produced with kinematic properties that are similar to those in Standard Model processes. Results are found to be compatible with the Standard Model expectations in the signal regions targeting large and intermediate mass-splittings, and chargino-neutralino masses up to 600 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest supersymmetric particle. Excesses of data above the expected background are found in the signal regions targeting low mass-splittings, and the largest local excess amounts to 3.0 standard deviations.

A search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production, as predicted by the Standard Model, is presented, where one of the Higgs bosons decays via the $H\rightarrow bb$ channel and the other via one of the $H \rightarrow WW^*/ZZ^*/\tau\tau$ channels. The analysis selection requires events to have at least two $b$-tagged jets and exactly two leptons (electrons or muons) with opposite electric charge in the final state. Candidate events consistent with Higgs boson pair production are selected using a multi-class neural network discriminant. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. An observed (expected) upper limit of 1.2 ($0.9^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$) pb is set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section at 95% confidence level, which is equivalent to 40 ($29^{+14}_{-9}$) times the value predicted in the Standard Model.

A search for direct pair production of top squarks in final states with two tau leptons, $b$-jets, and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. Two exclusive channels with either two hadronically decaying tau leptons or one hadronically and one leptonically decaying tau lepton are considered. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed in the data. The analysis results are interpreted in terms of model-independent limits and used to derive exclusion limits on the masses of the top squark $\tilde t_1$ and the tau slepton $\tilde \tau_1$ in a simplified model of supersymmetry with a nearly massless gravitino. In this model, masses up to $m(\tilde t_1) = 1.16$ TeV and $m(\tilde \tau_1) = 1.00$ TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

Many extensions of the Standard Model predict new resonances decaying to a $Z$, $W$, or Higgs boson and a photon. This paper presents a search for such resonances produced in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ $\mathrm{TeV}$ using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The $Z/W/H$ bosons are identified through their decays to hadrons. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectation in the entire investigated mass range. Upper limits are set on the production cross section times branching fraction for resonance decays to $Z/W+\gamma$ in the mass range from 1.0 to 6.8 $\mathrm{TeV}$, and for the first time into $H+\gamma$ in the mass range from 1.0 to 3.0 $\mathrm{TeV}$.

An observation of electroweak $W^{\pm}Z$ production in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions is presented. The data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV are used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$. Events containing three identified leptons, either electrons or muons, and two jets are selected. The electroweak production of $W^{\pm}Z$ bosons in association with two jets is measured with an observed significance of 5.3 standard deviations. A fiducial cross-section for electroweak production including interference effects is measured to be $\sigma_{WZjj\mathrm{-EW}} = 0.57 \; ^{+ 0.14} _{- 0.13} \,(\mathrm{stat.}) \; ^{+ 0.07} _{- 0.06} \,(\mathrm{syst.}) \; \mathrm{fb}$. Total and differential fiducial cross-sections of the sum of $W^\pm Z jj$ electroweak and strong productions for several kinematic observables are also measured.

The fragmentation of high-energy gluons at small opening angles is largely unconstrained by present measurements. Gluon splitting to $b$-quark pairs is a unique probe into the properties of gluon fragmentation because identified $b$-tagged jets provide a proxy for the quark daughters of the initial gluon. In this study, key differential distributions related to the $g\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ process are measured using 33 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV $pp$ collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2016. Jets constructed from charged-particle tracks, clustered with the anti-$k_t$ jet algorithm with radius parameter $R = 0.2$, are used to probe angular scales below the $R=0.4$ jet radius. The observables are unfolded to particle level in order to facilitate direct comparisons with predictions from present and future simulations. Multiple significant differences are observed between the data and parton shower Monte Carlo predictions, providing input to improve these predictions of the main source of background events in analyses involving boosted Higgs bosons decaying into $b$-quarks.

Multi-particle azimuthal cumulants are measured as a function of centrality and transverse momentum using 470 $\mu$b$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. These cumulants provide information on the event-by-event fluctuations of harmonic flow coefficients $v_n$ and correlated fluctuations between two harmonics $v_n$ and $v_m$. For the first time, a non-zero four-particle cumulant is observed for dipolar flow, $v_1$. The four-particle cumulants for elliptic flow, $v_2$, and triangular flow, $v_3$, exhibit a strong centrality dependence and change sign in ultra-central collisions. This sign change is consistent with significant non-Gaussian fluctuations in $v_2$ and $v_3$. The four-particle cumulant for quadrangular flow, $v_4$, is found to change sign in mid-central collisions. Correlations between two harmonics are studied with three- and four-particle mixed-harmonic cumulants, which indicate an anti-correlation between $v_2$ and $v_3$, and a positive correlation between $v_2$ and $v_4$. These correlations decrease in strength towards central collisions and either approach zero or change sign in ultra-central collisions. To investigate the possible flow fluctuations arising from intrinsic centrality or volume fluctuations, the results are compared between two different event classes used for centrality definitions. In peripheral and mid-central collisions where the cumulant signals are large, only small differences are observed. In ultra-central collisions, the differences are much larger and transverse momentum dependent. These results provide new information to disentangle flow fluctuations from the initial and final states, as well as new insights on the influence of centrality fluctuations.

A measurement of $W^\pm$ boson production in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV is reported using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $0.49\;\mathrm{nb^{-1}}$. The $W^\pm$ bosons are reconstructed in the electron or muon leptonic decay channels. Production yields of leptonically decaying $W^\pm$ bosons, normalised by the total number of minimum-bias events and the nuclear thickness function, are measured within a fiducial region defined by the detector acceptance and the main kinematic requirements. These normalised yields are measured separately for $W^+$ and $W^-$ bosons, and are presented as a function of the absolute value of pseudorapidity of the charged lepton and of the collision centrality. The lepton charge asymmetry is also measured as a function of the absolute value of lepton pseudorapidity. In addition, nuclear modification factors are calculated using the $W^\pm$ boson production cross-sections measured in $pp$ collisions. The results are compared with predictions based on next-to-leading-order calculations with CT14 parton distribution functions as well as with predictions obtained with the EPPS16 and nCTEQ15 nuclear parton distribution functions. No dependence of normalised production yields on centrality and a good agreement with predictions are observed for mid-central and central collisions. For peripheral collisions, the data agree with predictions within 1.7 (0.9) standard deviations for $W^-$ ($W^+$) bosons.