The ATLAS Collaboration has measured the inclusive production of $Z$ bosons via their decays into electron and muon pairs in $p+$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are made using data corresponding to integrated luminosities of 29.4 nb$^{-1}$ and 28.1 nb$^{-1}$ for $Z \rightarrow ee$ and $Z \rightarrow \mu\mu$, respectively. The results from the two channels are consistent and combined to obtain a cross section times the $Z \rightarrow \ell\ell$ branching ratio, integrated over the rapidity region $|y^{*}_{Z}|<3.5$, of 139.8 $\pm$ 4.8 (stat.) $\pm$ 6.2 (syst.) $\pm$ 3.8 (lumi.) nb. Differential cross sections are presented as functions of the $Z$ boson rapidity and transverse momentum, and compared with models based on parton distributions both with and without nuclear corrections. The centrality dependence of $Z$ boson production in $p+$Pb collisions is measured and analyzed within the framework of a standard Glauber model and the model's extension for fluctuations of the underlying nucleon-nucleon scattering cross section.

The ratio of production cross sections of the W and Z bosons with exactly one associated jet is presented as a function of jet transverse momentum threshold. The measurement has been designed to maximise cancellation of experimental and theoretical uncertainties, and is reported both within a particle-level kinematic range corresponding to the detector acceptance and as a total cross-section ratio. Results are obtained with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1. The results are compared with perturbative leading-order, leading-log, and next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and are found to agree within experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The ratio is measured for events with a single jet with p_T > 30 GeV to be 8.73 +/- 0.30 (stat) +/- 0.40 (syst) in the electron channel, and $ 8.49 +/- 0.23 (stat) +/- 0.33 (syst) in the muon channel.

A search for new particles that decay into top quark pairs is reported. The search is performed with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC using an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. The lepton-plus-jets final state is used, where the top pair decays to $W^+bW^-\bar{b}$, with one $W$ boson decaying leptonically and the other hadronically. The invariant mass spectrum of top quark pairs is examined for local excesses or deficits that are inconsistent with the Standard Model predictions. No evidence for a top quark pair resonance is found, and 95% confidence-level limits on the production rate are determined for massive states in benchmark models. The upper limits on the cross-section times branching ratio of a narrow $Z'$ boson decaying to top pairs range from 4.2 pb to 0.03 pb for resonance masses from 0.4 TeV to 3.0 TeV. A narrow leptophobic topcolour $Z'$ boson with mass below 1.8 TeV is excluded. Upper limits are set on the cross-section times branching ratio for a broad colour-octet resonance with $\Gamma/m =$ 15% decaying to $t\bar{t}$. These range from 2.5 pb to 0.03 pb for masses from 0.4 TeV to 3.0 TeV. A Kaluza-Klein excitation of the gluon in a Randall-Sundrum model is excluded for masses below 2.2 TeV.

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.

An analysis is presented of events containing jets including at least one $b$-tagged jet, sizeable missing transverse momentum, and at least two leptons including a pair of the same electric charge, with the scalar sum of the jet and lepton transverse momenta being large. A data sample with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is used. Standard Model processes rarely produce these final states, but there are several models of physics beyond the Standard Model that predict an enhanced rate of production of such events; the ones considered here are production of vector-like quarks, enhanced four-top-quark production, pair production of chiral $b^\prime$-quarks, and production of two positively charged top quarks. Eleven signal regions are defined; subsets of these regions are combined when searching for each class of models. In the three signal regions primarily sensitive to positively charged top quark pair production, the data yield is consistent with the background expectation. There are more data events than expected from background in the set of eight signal regions defined for searching for vector-like quarks and chiral $b^\prime$-quarks, but the significance of the discrepancy is less than two standard deviations. The discrepancy reaches 2.5 standard deviations in the set of five signal regions defined for searching for four-top-quark production. The results are used to set 95% CL limits on various models.

Measurements of the centrality and rapidity dependence of inclusive jet production in $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV proton--lead ($p$+Pb) collisions and the jet cross-section in $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV proton--proton collisions are presented. These quantities are measured in datasets corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.8 nb$^{-1}$ and 4.0 pb$^{-1}$, respectively, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2013. The $p$+Pb collision centrality was characterised using the total transverse energy measured in the pseudorapidity interval $-4.9 < \eta < -3.2$ in the direction of the lead beam. Results are presented for the double-differential per-collision yields as a function of jet rapidity and transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) for minimum-bias and centrality-selected $p$+Pb collisions, and are compared to the jet rate from the geometric expectation. The total jet yield in minimum-bias events is slightly enhanced above the expectation in a $p_\mathrm{T}$-dependent manner but is consistent with the expectation within uncertainties. The ratios of jet spectra from different centrality selections show a strong modification of jet production at all $p_\mathrm{T}$ at forward rapidities and for large $p_\mathrm{T}$ at mid-rapidity, which manifests as a suppression of the jet yield in central events and an enhancement in peripheral events. These effects imply that the factorisation between hard and soft processes is violated at an unexpected level in proton-nucleus collisions. Furthermore, the modifications at forward rapidities are found to be a function of the total jet energy only, implying that the violations may have a simple dependence on the hard parton-parton kinematics.

This paper presents measurements of charged-hadron spectra obtained in $pp$, $p$+Pb, and Pb+Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ or $\sqrt{s_{_\text{NN}}}=5.02$ TeV, and in Xe+Xe collisions at $\sqrt{s_{_\text{NN}}}=5.44$ TeV. The data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC have total integrated luminosities of 25 pb${}^{-1}$, 28 nb${}^{-1}$, 0.50 nb${}^{-1}$, and 3 $\mu$b${}^{-1}$, respectively. The nuclear modification factors $R_{p\text{Pb}}$ and $R_\text{AA}$ are obtained by comparing the spectra in heavy-ion and $pp$ collisions in a wide range of charged-particle transverse momenta and pseudorapidity. The nuclear modification factor $R_{p\text{Pb}}$ shows a moderate enhancement above unity with a maximum at $p_{\mathrm{T}} \approx 3$ GeV; the enhancement is stronger in the Pb-going direction. The nuclear modification factors in both Pb+Pb and Xe+Xe collisions feature a significant, centrality-dependent suppression. They show a similar distinct $p_{\mathrm{T}}$-dependence with a local maximum at $p_{\mathrm{T}} \approx 2$ GeV and a local minimum at $p_{\mathrm{T}} \approx 7$ GeV. This dependence is more distinguishable in more central collisions. No significant $|\eta|$-dependence is found. A comprehensive comparison with several theoretical predictions is also provided. They typically describe $R_\text{AA}$ better in central collisions and in the $p_{\mathrm{T}}$ range from about 10 to 100 GeV.

A combination of searches for resonant Higgs boson pair production is presented, using up to 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The combination includes searches performed in three decay channels: $b\bar{b}b\bar{b}$, $bb\tau^+\tau^-$ and $bb\gamma\gamma$. No excess above the expected background is observed and upper limits are set at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of Higgs boson pairs originating from the decay of a narrow scalar resonance with mass in the range 251 GeV-5 TeV. The observed (expected) limits are in the range 0.96-600 fb (1.2-390 fb). The limits are interpreted in the Type-I Two-Higgs-Doublet Model and the Minimimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and constrain parameter space not previously excluded by other searches.

Parton energy loss in the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) is studied with a measurement of photon-tagged jet production in 1.7 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data and 260 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ data, both at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, with the ATLAS detector. The process $pp \to \gamma$+jet+$X$ and its analogue in Pb+Pb collisions is measured in events containing an isolated photon with transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$) above $50$ GeV and reported as a function of jet $p_\mathrm{T}$. This selection results in a sample of jets with a steeply falling $p_\mathrm{T}$ distribution that are mostly initiated by the showering of quarks. The $pp$ and Pb+Pb measurements are used to report the nuclear modification factor, $R_\mathrm{AA}$, and the fractional energy loss, $S_\mathrm{loss}$, for photon-tagged jets. In addition, the results are compared with the analogous ones for inclusive jets, which have a significantly smaller quark-initiated fraction. The $R_\mathrm{AA}$ and $S_\mathrm{loss}$ values are found to be significantly different between those for photon-tagged jets and inclusive jets, demonstrating that energy loss in the QGP is sensitive to the colour-charge of the initiating parton. The results are also compared with a variety of theoretical models of colour-charge-dependent energy loss.

This article presents the results of two studies of Higgs boson properties using the $WW^*(\rightarrow e\nu\mu\nu)jj$ final state, based on a dataset corresponding to 36.1/fb of $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV proton$-$proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The first study targets Higgs boson production via gluon$-$gluon fusion and constrains the CP properties of the effective Higgs$-$gluon interaction. Using angular distributions and the overall rate, a value of $\tan(\alpha) = 0.0 \pm 0.4$ stat. $ \pm 0.3$ syst is obtained for the tangent of the mixing angle for CP-even and CP-odd contributions. The second study exploits the vector-boson fusion production mechanism to probe the Higgs boson couplings to longitudinally and transversely polarised $W$ and $Z$ bosons in both the production and the decay of the Higgs boson; these couplings have not been directly constrained previously. The polarisation-dependent coupling-strength scale factors are defined as the ratios of the measured polarisation-dependent coupling strengths to those predicted by the Standard Model, and are determined using rate and kinematic information to be $a_L=0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}$(stat.)$^{+0.09}_{-0.17}$(syst.) and $a_{T}=1.2 \pm 0.4 $(stat.)$ ^{+0.2}_{-0.3} $(syst.). These coupling strengths are translated into pseudo-observables, resulting in $\kappa_{VV}= 0.91^{+0.10}_{-0.18}$(stat.)$^{+0.09}_{-0.17}$(syst.) and $\epsilon_{VV} =0.13^{+0.28}_{-0.20}$ (stat.)$^{+0.08}_{-0.10}$(syst.). All results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions.