© 2016, CERN for the benefit of the.The luminosity determination for the ATLAS detector at the LHC during pp collisions at s= 8 TeV in 2012 is presented. The evaluation of the luminosity scale is performed using several luminometers, and comparisons between these luminosity detectors are made to assess the accuracy, consistency and long-term stability of the results. A luminosity uncertainty of δL/ L= ± 1.9 % is obtained for the 22.7fb-1 of pp collision data delivered to ATLAS at s= (...) 8 TeV in 2012. (shrink)

© 2017 CERN.A measurement of the inclusive pp→tt+X production cross section in the τ+jets final state using only the hadronic decays of the τ lepton is presented. The measurement is performed using 20.2 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of s=8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The cross section is measured via a counting experiment by imposing a set of selection criteria on the identification and kinematic variables of the reconstructed particles (...) and jets, and on event kinematic variables and characteristics. The production cross section is measured to be σtt=239±29 pb, which is in agreement with the measurements in other final states and the theoretical predictions at this center-of-mass energy. (shrink)

© 2017, CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.A measurement of the calorimeter response to isolated charged hadrons in the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. This measurement is performed with 3.2 nb- 1 of proton–proton collision data at s=7 TeV from 2010 and 0.1 nb- 1 of data at s=8 TeV from 2012. A number of aspects of the calorimeter response to isolated hadrons are explored. After accounting for energy deposited by neutral particles, there is a 5% (...) discrepancy in the modelling, using various sets of Geant4 hadronic physics models, of the calorimeter response to isolated charged hadrons in the central calorimeter region. The description of the response to anti-protons at low momenta is found to be improved with respect to previous analyses. The electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters are also examined separately, and the detector simulation is found to describe the response in the hadronic calorimeter well. The jet energy scale uncertainty and correlations in scale between jets of different momenta and pseudorapidity are derived based on these studies. The uncertainty is 2–5% for jets with transverse momenta above 2 TeV, where this method provides the jet energy scale uncertainty for ATLAS. (shrink)

© 2016 The Author.The top quark mass is measured in the tt̄ → dileptonchannel using ATLAS data recorded in the year 2012 at the LHC. The data were taken at a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of √s=8 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of about 20.2fb-1. Exploiting the template method, and using the distribution of invariant masses of lepton-b-jetpairs, the top quark mass is measured to be mtop=172.99 ±0.41 ±0.74 GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.84 GeV. Finally, acombination with (...) previous ATLAS mtop measurements from √s=7TeVdata in the tt̄ → dilepton and tt̄→lepton+jetschannels results in mtop=172.84 ±0.34 ±0.61 GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.70 GeV. (shrink)

© 2016 The Author.This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section with a data sample of 3.2 fb−1of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=13 TeV, collected in 2015 by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This measurement uses events with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair in the final state. Jets containing b-quarks are tagged using an algorithm based on track impact parameters and reconstructed secondary vertices. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly (...) two b-tagged jets are counted and used to determine simultaneously σtt̄and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section is measured to be: σtt̄ = 818±8 ± 27 ±19 ± 12 pb, where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the integrated luminosity and the LHC beam energy, giving a total relative uncertainty of 4.4%. The result is consistent with theoretical QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order. A fiducial measurement corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons is also presented. (shrink)

© 2016 The Author.The production of W±Z events in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The collected data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb−1. The W±Z candidates are reconstructed using leptonic decays of the gauge bosons into electrons or muons. The measured inclusive cross section in the detector fiducial region for leptonic decay modes is σfid.W±Z→ℓʹ νℓℓ=63.2 ±3.2 ±2.6 ±1.5 fb. In comparison, the next-to-leading-order Standard Model (...) prediction is 53.4+3.6−2.8fb. The extrapolation of the measurement from the fiducial to the total phase space yields σtot.W±Z=50.6 ±2.6 ±2.0 ±0.9 ±1.2 pb, in agreement with a recent next-to-next-to-leading-order calculation of 48.2+1.1−1.0pb. The cross section as a function of jet multiplicity is also measured, together with the charge-dependent W+Z and W−Z cross sections and their ratio. (shrink)

© 2016, CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.The algorithms used by the ATLAS Collaboration to reconstruct and identify prompt photons are described. Measurements of the photon identification efficiencies are reported, using 4.9 fb- 1 of pp collision data collected at the LHC at s=7 TeV and 20.3 fb- 1 at s=8 TeV. The efficiencies are measured separately for converted and unconverted photons, in four different pseudorapidity regions, for transverse momenta between 10 GeV and 1.5 TeV. The results from (...) the combination of three data-driven techniques are compared to the predictions from a simulation of the detector response, after correcting the electromagnetic shower momenta in the simulation for the average differences observed with respect to data. Data-to-simulation efficiency ratios used as correction factors in physics measurements are determined to account for the small residual efficiency differences. These factors are measured with uncertainties between 0.5% and 10% in 7 TeV data and between 0.5% and 5.6% in 8 TeV data, depending on the photon transverse momentum and pseudorapidity. (shrink)

© 2017, The Author.Measurements of top quark spin observables in tt¯ events are presented based on 20.2 fb−1 of s=8 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The analysis is performed in the dilepton final state, characterised by the presence of two isolated leptons. There are 15 observables, each sensitive to a different coefficient of the spin density matrix of tt¯ production, which are measured independently. Ten of these observables are measured for the first time. All (...) of them are corrected for detector resolution and acceptance effects back to the parton and stable-particle levels. The measured values of the observables at parton level are compared to Standard Model predictions at next-to-leading order in QCD. The corrected distributions at stable-particle level are presented and the means of the distributions are compared to Monte Carlo predictions. No significant deviation from the Standard Model is observed for any observable.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]. (shrink)

© 2016 The AuthorA measurement of the total pp cross section at the LHC at s=8 TeV is presented. An integrated luminosity of 500 μb−1 was accumulated in a special run with high-β⋆ beam optics to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable t. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the −t range from 0.014 GeV2 to 0.1 GeV2 (...) to extrapolate t→0, the total cross section, σtot, is measured via the optical theorem to beσtot=96.07±0.18±0.85±0.31mb, where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation t→0. In addition, the slope of the exponential function describing the elastic cross section at small t is determined to be B=19.74±0.05±0.23GeV−2. (shrink)

© 2016, CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.The dijet production cross section for jets containing a b-hadron has been measured in proton–proton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of s=7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.2fb-1. The cross section is measured for events with two identified b-jets with a transverse momentum pT> 20 GeV and a minimum separation in the η–ϕ plane of Δ R= 0.4. At least (...) one of the jets in the event is required to have pT> 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. (shrink)

© 2016 The Author.The production of Wboson pairs in association with one jet in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV is studied using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb-1collected by the ATLAS detector during 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The cross section is measured in a fiducial phase-space region defined by the presence of exactly one electron and one muon, missing transverse momentum and exactly one jet with a transverse momentum above 25 GeV and (...) a pseudorapidity of |η| <4.5. The leptons are required to have opposite electric charge and to pass transverse momentum and pseudorapidity requirements. The fiducial cross section is found to be σWWfid,1-jet= 136 ± 6 ± 14 ± 3 fb. In combination with a previous measurement restricted to leptonic final states with no associated jets, the fiducial cross section of WW production with zero or one jet is measured to be σWWfid,≤1-jet= 511 ±9 ±26 ±10 fb. The ratio of fiducial cross sections in final states with one and zero jets is determined to be 0.36 ±0.05. Finally, a total cross section extrapolated from the fiducial measurement of WW production with zero or one associated jet is reported. The measurements are compared to theoretical predictions and found in good agreement. (shrink)

© 2016The W boson angular distribution in events with high transverse momentum jets is measured using data collected by the ATLAS experiment from proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy s=8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. The focus is on the contributions to W+jets processes from real W emission, which is achieved by studying events where a muon is observed close to a high transverse momentum jet. At small angular separations, these contributions (...) are expected to be large. Various theoretical models of this process are compared to the data in terms of the absolute cross-section and the angular distributions of the muon from the leptonic W decay. (shrink)

© 2016, CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.The result of a search for pair production of the supersymmetric partner of the Standard Model bottom quark is reported. The search uses 3.2 fb- 1 of pp collisions at s=13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015. Bottom squarks are searched for in events containing large missing transverse momentum and exactly two jets identified as originating from b-quarks. No excess above the expected Standard Model (...) background yield is observed. Exclusion limits at 95 % confidence level on the mass of the bottom squark are derived in phenomenological supersymmetric R-parity-conserving models in which the b~1 is the lightest squark and is assumed to decay exclusively via b~1→bχ~10, where χ~10 is the lightest neutralino. The limits significantly extend previous results; bottom squark masses up to 800 GeV are excluded for the χ~10 mass below 360 GeV whilst differences in mass above 100 GeV between the b~1 and the χ~10 are excluded up to a b~1 mass of 500 GeV. (shrink)

© 2016 The AuthorA search for dark matter pair production in association with a Higgs boson decaying to a pair of bottom quarks is presented, using 3.2 fb−1of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The decay of the Higgs boson is reconstructed as a high-momentum bb¯ system with either a pair of small-radius jets, or a single large-radius jet with substructure. The observed data are found to be consistent with (...) the expected backgrounds. Results are interpreted using a simplified model with a Z′gauge boson mediating the interaction between dark matter and the Standard Model as well as a two-Higgs-doublet model containing an additional Z′boson which decays to a Standard Model Higgs boson and a new pseudoscalar Higgs boson, the latter decaying into a pair of dark matter particles. (shrink)

© 2016 The AuthorA search is conducted for both resonant and non-resonant high-mass new phenomena in dielectron and dimuon final states. The search uses 3.2fb−1 of proton–proton collision data, collected at s=13TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2015. The dilepton invariant mass is used as the discriminating variable. No significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed; therefore limits are set on the signal model parameters of interest at 95% credibility level. Upper limits are set on (...) the cross-section times branching ratio for resonances decaying to dileptons, and the limits are converted into lower limits on the resonance mass, ranging between 2.74 TeV and 3.36 TeV, depending on the model. Lower limits on the ℓℓqq contact interaction scale are set between 16.7 TeV and 25.2 TeV, also depending on the model. (shrink)