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 dynamics of isolated-photon plus one-, two- and three-jet production in $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 20.2 fb$^{-1}$. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jets cross sections are presented as functions of the photon and jet transverse momenta. The cross sections as functions of the azimuthal angle between the photon and the jets, the azimuthal angle between the jets, the photon-jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon-jet centre-of-mass system are presented. The pattern of QCD radiation around the photon and the leading jet is investigated by measuring jet production in an annular region centred on each object; enhancements are observed around the leading jet with respect to the photon in the directions towards the beams. The experimental measurements are compared to several different theoretical calculations, and overall a good description of the data is found.

The production of a prompt photon in association with a $Z$ boson is studied in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC from 2015 to 2018. The production cross-section for the process $pp \rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-\gamma+X$ ($\ell = e, \mu$) is measured within a fiducial phase-space region defined by kinematic requirements on the photon and the leptons, and by isolation requirements on the photon. An experimental precision of 2.9% is achieved for the fiducial cross-section. Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of each of six kinematic variables characterising the $\ell^+\ell^-\gamma$ system. The data are compared with theoretical predictions based on next-to-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations. The impact of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections is also considered.

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.

Detailed measurements of $t$-channel single top-quark production are presented. They use 20.2 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the LHC. Total, fiducial and differential cross-sections are measured for both top-quark and top-antiquark production. The fiducial cross-section is measured with a precision of 5.8 % (top quark) and 7.8 % (top antiquark), respectively. The total cross-sections are measured to be $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(tq) = 56.7^{+4.3}_{-3.8}\;$pb for top-quark production and $\sigma_{\mathrm{tot}}(\bar{t}q) = 32.9^{+3.0}_{-2.7}\;$pb for top-antiquark production, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. In addition, the ratio of top-quark to top-antiquark production cross-sections is determined to be $R_t=1.72 \pm 0.09$, with an improved relative precision of 4.9 % since several systematic uncertainties cancel in the ratio. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of both the top quark and the top antiquark are measured at both the parton and particle levels. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential cross-sections of the accompanying jet from the $t$-channel scattering are measured at particle level. All measurements are compared to various Monte Carlo predictions as well as to fixed-order QCD calculations where available.

This paper presents a measurement of the production cross-section of a $Z$ boson in association with $b$-jets, in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.6 fb$^{-1}$. Inclusive and differential cross-sections are measured for events containing a $Z$ boson decaying into electrons or muons and produced in association with at least one or at least two $b$-jets with transverse momentum $p_\textrm{T}>$ 20 GeV and rapidity $|y| < 2.5$. Predictions from several Monte Carlo generators based on leading-order (LO) or next-to-leading-order (NLO) matrix elements interfaced with a parton-shower simulation and testing different flavour schemes for the choice of initial-state partons are compared with measured cross-sections. The 5-flavour number scheme predictions at NLO accuracy agree better with data than 4-flavour number scheme ones. The 4-flavour number scheme predictions underestimate data in events with at least one b-jet.

A measurement of the $ZZ$ production in the $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ channels $(\ell = e, \mu)$ in proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2012 is presented. The fiducial cross sections for $ZZ\to\ell^{-}\ell^{+}\ell^{\prime -}\ell^{\prime +}$ and $ZZ\to \ell^{-}\ell^{+}\nu\bar{\nu}$ are measured in selected phase-space regions. The total cross section for $ZZ$ events produced with both $Z$ bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV is measured from the combination of the two channels to be $7.3\pm0.4\textrm{(stat)}\pm0.3\textrm{(syst)}\pm0.2\textrm{(lumi)}$ pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of $6.6^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$ pb. The differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. The differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading $Z$ boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in $ZZ$ production.

Differential cross-section measurements are presented for the electroweak production of two jets in association with a $Z$ boson. These measurements are sensitive to the vector-boson fusion production mechanism and provide a fundamental test of the gauge structure of the Standard Model. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by ATLAS at $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV and with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The differential cross-sections are measured in the $Z\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$ decay channel ($\ell=e,\mu$) as a function of four observables: the dijet invariant mass, the rapidity interval spanned by the two jets, the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets, and the transverse momentum of the dilepton pair. The data are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution and are sufficiently precise to distinguish between different state-of-the-art theoretical predictions calculated using Powheg+Pythia8, Herwig7+Vbfnlo and Sherpa 2.2. The differential cross-sections are used to search for anomalous weak-boson self-interactions using a dimension-six effective field theory. The differential cross-section as a function of the signed azimuthal angle between the two jets is found to be particularly sensitive to the interference between the Standard Model and dimension-six scattering amplitudes and provides a direct test of charge-conjugation and parity invariance in the weak-boson self-interactions.

The cross section of a top-quark pair produced in association with a photon is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV with $20.2$ fb$^{-1}$ of data collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. The measurement is performed by selecting events that contain a photon with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T} > 15$ GeV, an isolated lepton with large transverse momentum, large missing transverse momentum, and at least four jets, where at least one is identified as originating from a $b$-quark. The production cross section is measured in a fiducial region close to the selection requirements. It is found to be $139 \pm 7 (\mathrm{stat.}) \pm 17 (\mathrm{syst.})$ fb, in good agreement with the theoretical prediction at next-to-leading order of $151 \pm 24$ fb. In addition, differential cross sections in the fiducial region are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the photon.

The dynamics of isolated-photon production in association with a jet in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using a dataset with an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb$^{-1}$. Photons are required to have transverse energies above 125 GeV. Jets are identified using the anti-$k_t$ algorithm with radius parameter $R=0.4$ and required to have transverse momenta above 100 GeV. Measurements of isolated-photon plus jet cross sections are presented as functions of the leading-photon transverse energy, the leading-jet transverse momentum, the azimuthal angular separation between the photon and the jet, the photon-jet invariant mass and the scattering angle in the photon-jet centre-of-mass system. Tree-level plus parton-shower predictions from SHERPA and PYTHIA as well as next-to-leading-order QCD predictions from JETPHOX and SHERPA are compared to the measurements.