The four-lepton ($4\ell$, $\ell = e, \mu$) production cross section is measured in the mass range from 80 to 1000 GeV using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The $4\ell$ events are produced in the decays of resonant $Z$ and Higgs bosons and the non-resonant $ZZ$ continuum originating from $q\bar q$, $gg$, and $qg$ initial states. A total of 476 signal candidate events are observed with a background expectation of $26.2 \pm 3.6$ events, enabling the measurement of the integrated cross section and the differential cross section as a function of the invariant mass and transverse momentum of the four-lepton system. In the mass range above $180$ GeV, assuming the theoretical constraint on the $q\bar q$ production cross section calculated with perturbative NNLO QCD and NLO electroweak corrections, the signal strength of the gluon-fusion component relative to its leading-order prediction is determined to be $\mu_{gg}=2.4 \pm 1.0 (stat.) \pm 0.5 (syst.)\pm 0.8 (theory)$.

The dijet production cross section for jets containing a $b$-hadron ($b$-jets) has been measured in proton-proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.2 fb$^{-1}$. The cross section is measured for events with two identified $b$-jets with a transverse momentum $p_T > 20$ GeV and a minimum separation in the $\eta$-$\phi$ plane of $\Delta R = 0.4$. At least one of the jets in the event is required to have $p_T > 270$ GeV. The cross section is measured differentially as a function of dijet invariant mass, dijet transverse momentum, boost of the dijet system, and the rapidity difference, azimuthal angle and angular distance between the $b$-jets. The results are compared to different predictions of leading order and next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics matrix elements supplemented with models for parton-showers and hadronization.

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.

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.

Measurements of the yield and nuclear modification factor, $R_\mathrm{ AA}$, for inclusive jet production are performed using 0.49 nb$^{-1}$ of Pb+Pb data at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} = 5.02$ TeV and 25 pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ data at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R=0.4$ and are measured over the transverse momentum range of 40-1000 GeV in six rapidity intervals covering $|y|<2.8$. The magnitude of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ increases with increasing jet transverse momentum, reaching a value of approximately 0.6 at 1 TeV in the most central collisions. The magnitude of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ also increases towards peripheral collisions. The value of $R_\mathrm{ AA}$ is independent of rapidity at low jet transverse momenta, but it is observed to decrease with increasing rapidity at high transverse momenta.

Measurements of normalized differential cross-sections of top quark pair ($t\bar t$) production are presented as a function of the mass, the transverse momentum and the rapidity of the $t\bar t$ system in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb$^{-1}$ at 7 TeV and 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ at 8 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with top quark pair signatures are selected in the dilepton final state, requiring exactly two charged leptons and at least two jets with at least one of the jets identified as likely to contain a $b$-hadron. The measured distributions are corrected for detector effects and selection efficiency to cross-sections at the parton level. The differential cross-sections are compared with different Monte Carlo generators and theoretical calculations of $t\bar t$ production. The results are consistent with the majority of predictions in a wide kinematic range.

Measurements of the per-event charged-particle yield as a function of the charged-particle transverse momentum and rapidity are performed using $p+$Pb collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_{NN}}=5.02$ TeV. Charged particles are reconstructed over pseudorapidity $|\eta|<2.3$ and transverse momentum between $0.1$ GeV and $22$ GeV in a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1$ $\mu b^{-1}$. The results are presented in the form of charged-particle nuclear modification factors, where the $p+$Pb charged-particle multiplicities are compared between central and peripheral $p+$Pb collisions as well as to charged-particle cross sections measured in pp collisions. The $p+$Pb collision centrality is characterized by the total transverse energy measured in $-4.9<\eta<-3.1$, which is in the direction of the outgoing lead beam. Three different estimations of the number of nucleons participating in the $p+$Pb collision are carried out using the Glauber model and two Glauber-Gribov colour-fluctuation extensions to the Glauber model. The values of the nuclear modification factors are found to vary significantly as a function of rapidity and transverse momentum. A broad peak is observed for all centralities and rapidities in the nuclear modification factors for charged-particle transverse momentum values around $3$ GeV. The magnitude of the peak increases for more central collisions as well as rapidity ranges closer to the direction of the outgoing lead nucleus.

This Letter presents the measurement of differential cross sections of isolated prompt photons produced in association with a b-jet or a c-jet. These final states provide sensitivity to the heavy-flavour content of the proton and aspects related to the modelling of heavy-flavour quarks in perturbative QCD. The measurement uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 20.2 fb$^{-1}$. The differential cross sections are measured for each jet flavour with respect to the transverse energy of the leading photon in two photon pseudorapidity regions: $|\eta^\gamma|<1.37$ and $1.56<|\eta^\gamma|<2.37$. The measurement covers photon transverse energies $25 < E_\textrm{T}^\gamma<400$ GeV and $25 < E_\textrm{T}^\gamma<350$ GeV respectively for the two $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions. For each jet flavour, the ratio of the cross sections in the two $|\eta^\gamma|$ regions is also measured. The measurement is corrected for detector effects and compared to leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations, based on various treatments and assumptions about the heavy-flavour content of the proton. Overall, the predictions agree well with the measurement, but some deviations are observed at high photon transverse energies. The total uncertainty in the measurement ranges between 13% and 66%, while the central $\gamma+b$ measurement exhibits the smallest uncertainty, ranging from 13% to 27%, which is comparable to the precision of the theoretical predictions.

Measurements of differential cross-sections of top-quark pair production in fiducial phase-spaces are presented as a function of top-quark and $t\bar{t}$ system kinematic observables in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $3.2$ fb${}^{-1}$, recorded in 2015 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events with exactly one electron or muon and at least two jets in the final state are used for the measurement. Two separate selections are applied that each focus on different top-quark momentum regions, referred to as resolved and boosted topologies of the $t\bar{t}$ final state. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations by means of calculated $\chi^2$ and $p$-values.

Measurements of normalized differential cross-sections of top-quark pair production are presented as a function of the top-quark, $t\bar{t}$ system and event-level kinematic observables in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV}. The observables have been chosen to emphasize the $t\bar{t}$ production process and to be sensitive to effects of initial- and final-state radiation, to the different parton distribution functions, and to non-resonant processes and higher-order corrections. The dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$, recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in the lepton+jets channel, requiring exactly one charged lepton and at least four jets with at least two of the jets tagged as originating from a $b$-quark. The measured spectra are corrected for detector effects and are compared to several Monte Carlo simulations. The results are in fair agreement with the predictions over a wide kinematic range. Nevertheless, most generators predict a harder top-quark transverse momentum distribution at high values than what is observed in the data. Predictions beyond NLO accuracy improve the agreement with data at high top-quark transverse momenta. Using the current settings and parton distribution functions, the rapidity distributions are not well modelled by any generator under consideration. However, the level of agreement is improved when more recent sets of parton distribution functions are used.