This Letter reports the observation of a high transverse momentum $Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ signal in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV and the measurement of its production cross section. The data analysed were collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb$^{-1}$. The $Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ decay is reconstructed from a pair of b-tagged jets, clustered with the anti-$k_t$ jet algorithm with $R = 0.4$, that have low angular separation and form a dijet with $p_T > 200$ GeV. The signal yield is extracted from a fit to the dijet invariant mass distribution, with the dominant, multi-jet background mass shape estimated by employing a fully data-driven technique that reduces the dependence of the analysis on simulation. The fiducial cross section is determined to be \[ \sigma^\mathrm{fid}_{Z\rightarrow b\bar{b}} = 2.02 \pm 0.20 ({\rm stat.}) \pm0.25 ({\rm syst.)}\pm 0.06 ({\rm lumi.}){\rm\,pb} = 2.02 \pm{0.33}{\rm\,pb}, \] in good agreement with next-to-leading-order theoretical predictions.

This paper presents measurements of $W^\pm Z$ production in $pp$ collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The gauge bosons are reconstructed using their leptonic decay modes into electrons and muons. The data were collected in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The measured inclusive cross section in the detector fiducial region is $\sigma_{W^\pm Z \rightarrow \ell^{'} \nu\ \ell \ell} = 35.1 \pm$ 0.9 (stat.) $\pm 0.8$ (sys.) $\pm 0.8$ (lumi.) fb, for one leptonic decay channel. In comparison, the next-to-leading-order Standard Model expectation is 30.0 $\pm$ 2.1 fb. Cross sections for $W^+Z$ and $W^-Z$ production and their ratio are presented as well as differential cross sections for several kinematic observables. Limits on anomalous triple gauge boson couplings are derived from the transverse mass spectrum of the $W^\pm Z$ system. From the analysis of events with a $W$ and a $Z$ boson associated with two or more forward jets an upper limit at 95% confidence level on the $W^\pm Z$ scattering cross section of 0.63 fb, for each leptonic decay channel, is established, while the Standard Model prediction at next-to-leading order is 0.13 fb. Limits on anomalous quartic gauge boson couplings are also extracted.

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with $p_T > 120$ GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between $E_T^{miss} > 150$ GeV and $E_T^{miss} > 700$ GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, and production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presented.

A search for Higgs boson pair production $pp \to hh$ is performed with 19.5 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=$ 8 TeV, which were recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The decay products of each Higgs boson are reconstructed as a high-momentum $b\bar{b}$ system with either a pair of small-radius jets or a single large-radius jet, the latter exploiting jet substructure techniques and associated $b$-tagged track-jets. No evidence for resonant or non-resonant Higgs boson pair production is observed. The data are interpreted in the context of the Randall--Sundrum model with a warped extra dimension as well as the two-Higgs-doublet model. An upper limit on the cross-section for $pp \to G^{*}_{\mathrm{KK}} \to hh \to b\bar{b} b\bar{b}$ of 3.2 (2.3) fb is set for a Kaluza--Klein graviton $G^{*}_{\mathrm{KK}}$ mass of 1.0 (1.5) TeV, at the 95\% confidence level. The search for non-resonant Standard Model $hh$ production sets an observed 95\% confidence level upper limit on the production cross-section $\sigma(pp \to hh \to b\bar{b}b\bar{b})$ of 202 fb, compared to a SM prediction of $\sigma(pp \to hh \to b\bar{b}b\bar{b}) = 3.6 \pm 0.5$ fb.

Various differential cross-sections are measured in top-quark pair ($t\bar{t}$) events produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV at the LHC with the ATLAS detector. These differential cross-sections are presented in a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $4.6$ fb$^{-1}$. The differential cross-sections are presented in terms of kinematic variables, such as momentum, rapidity and invariant mass, of a top-quark proxyreferred to as the pseudo-top-quark as well as the pseudo-top-quark pair system. The dependence of the measurement on theoretical models is minimal. The measurements are performed on $t\bar{t}$ events in the lepton+jets channel, requiring exactly one charged lepton and at least four jets with at least two of them tagged as originating from a $b$-quark. The hadronic and leptonic pseudo-top-quarks are defined via the leptonic or hadronic decay mode of the $W$ boson produced by the top-quark decay in events with a single charged lepton. Differential cross-section measurements of the pseudo-top-quark variables are compared with several Monte Carlo models that implement next-to-leading order or leading-order multi-leg matrix-element calculations.

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.

Searches for exclusively produced $W$ boson pairs in the process $pp(\gamma\gamma) \rightarrow pW^+W^-p$ and exclusively produced Higgs boson in the process $pp(gg) \rightarrow pHp$ have been performed using $e^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$ final states. These measurements use 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV at the LHC. Exclusive production of $W^+W^-$ consistent with the Standard Model prediction is found with 3.0$\sigma$ significance. The exclusive $W^+W^-$ production cross-section is determined to be $\sigma (\gamma\gamma\rightarrow W^{+}W^{-}\rightarrow e^{\pm}\mu^{\mp} X) = 6.9 \pm 2.2 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 1.4 (\mathrm{sys.})$ fb, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. Limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings are set at 95\% confidence-level as $-1.7 \times 10^{-6} < a_0^W/\Lambda^2 < 1.7 \times 10^{-6}$ GeV$^{-2}$and $-6.4 \times 10^{-6} < a_C^W/\Lambda^2 < 6.3 \times 10^{-6}$ GeV$^{-2}$. A 95\% confidence-level upper limit on the total production cross-section for exclusive Higgs boson is set to 1.2 pb.

A measurement of the $t$-channel single-top-quark and single-top-antiquark production cross-sections in the lepton+je ts channel is presented, using 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015. Events are selected by requiring one charged lepton (electron or muon), missing transverse momentum, and two jets with high transverse momentum, exactly one of which is required to be $b$-tagged. Using a binned maximum-likelihood fit to the discriminant distribution of a neural network, the cross-sections are determined to be $\sigma(tq) = 156 \pm 5 \, (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 27 \, (\mathrm{syst.}) \pm 3\,(\mathrm{lumi.})$ pb for single top-quark production and $\sigma(\bar{t}q) = 91 \pm 4 \, (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 18 \, (\mathrm{syst.}) \pm 2\,(\mathrm{lumi.})$ pb for single top-antiquark production, assuming a top-quark mass of 172.5 GeV. The cross-section ratio is measured to be $R_t = \sigma(tq)/\sigma(\bar{t}q) = 1.72 \pm 0.09 \, (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 0.18 \, (\mathrm{syst.})$.

A measurement of $\textit{W}$ boson production in lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}}=$2.76 TeV is presented. It is based on the analysis of data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2011 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.14 $\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ and 0.15 $\mathrm{nb}^{-1}$ in the muon and electron decay channels, respectively. The differential production yields and lepton charge asymmetry are each measured as a function of the average number of participating nucleons $< N_{\mathrm{part}} >$ and absolute pseudorapidity of the charged lepton. The results are compared to predictions based on next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. These measurements are, in principle, sensitive to possible nuclear modifications to the parton distribution functions and also provide information on scaling of $\textit{W}$ boson production in multi-nucleon systems.

A search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson ($H$) into a $b\bar{b}$ resonance plus missing transverse momentum is described. The search is performed with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using 139 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. The search targets events from $ZH$ production in an NMSSM scenario where $H \rightarrow \tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}$, with $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2} \rightarrow {a} \tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}$, where $a$ is a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson and $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1,2}$ are the two lightest neutralinos. The decay of the $a$ boson into a pair of $b$-quarks results in a peak in the dijet invariant mass distribution. The final-state signature consists of two leptons, two or more jets, at least one of which is identified as originating from a $b$-quark, and missing transverse momentum. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations and upper limits are set on the product of cross section times branching ratio for a three-dimensional scan of the masses of the $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{2}$, $\tilde{\chi}^{0}_{1}$ and $a$ boson.