Abstract: The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the Higgs boson couplings and mass, and searched for invisible Higgs boson decays, using multiple production and decay channels with up to 4.7 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root S = 7 TeV and 20.3 fb(-1) at root s = 8 TeV. In the current study, the measured production and decay rates of the observed Higgs boson in the gamma gamma, ZZ, WW, Z gamma, bb, tau tau, and μμdecay channels, along with results from the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top-quark pair, are used to probe the scaling of the couplings with mass. Limits are set on parameters in extensions of the Standard Model including a composite Higgs boson, an additional electroweak singlet, and two-Higgs-doublet models. Together with the measured mass of the scalar Higgs boson in the gamma gamma and ZZ decay modes, a lower limit is set on the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass of m(A) > 370 GeV in the “hMSSM” simplified Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Results from direct searches for heavy Higgs bosons are also interpreted in the hMSSM. Direct searches for invisible Higgs boson decays in the vector-boson fusion and associated production of a Higgs boson with W/Z (Z -> ll, W/Z -> jj) modes are statistically combined to set an upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.25. The use of the measured visible decay rates in a more general coupling fit improves the upper limit to 0.23, constraining a Higgs portal model of dark matter.

Abstract: The ATLAS experiment has observed 1995 Z boson candidates in data corresponding to 0.15 nb(-1) of integrated luminosity obtained in the 2011 LHC Pb + Pb run at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV. The Z bosons are reconstructed via dielectron and dimuon decay channels, with a background contamination of less than 3%. Results from the two channels are consistent and are combined. Within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the per-event Z boson yield is proportional to the number of binary collisions estimated by the Glauber model. The elliptic anisotropy of the azimuthal distribution of the Z boson with respect to the event plane is found to be consistent with zero.

Abstract: The ATLAS inner detector comprises three different sub-detectors: the pixel detector, the silicon strip tracker, and the transition-radiation drift-tube tracker. The Insertable B-Layer, a new innermost pixel layer, was installed during the shutdown period in 2014, together with modifications to the layout of the cables and support structures of the existing pixel detector. The material in the inner detector is studied with several methods, using a low-luminosity root s = 13 TeV pp collision sample corresponding to around 2.0 nb(-1) collected in 2015 with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In this paper, the material within the innermost barrel region is studied using reconstructed hadronic interaction and photon conversion vertices. For the forward rapidity region, the material is probed by a measurement of the efficiency with which single tracks reconstructed from pixel detector hits alone can be extended with hits on the track in the strip layers. The results of these studies have been taken into account in an improved description of the material in the ATLAS inner detector simulation, resulting in a reduction in the uncertainties associated with the charged-particle reconstruction efficiency determined from simulation.

Abstract: The centrality dependence of the mean charged-particle multiplicity as a function of pseudorapidity is measured in approximately 1 μb(-1) of proton-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Charged particles with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.7 are reconstructed using the ATLAS pixel detector. The p + Pb collision centrality is characterised by the total transverse energy measured in the Pb-going direction of the forward calorimeter. The charged-particle pseudorapidity distributions are found to vary strongly with centrality, with an increasing asymmetry between the proton-going and Pb-going directions as the collisions become more central. Three different estimations of the number of nucleons participating in the p + Pb collision have been carried out using the Glauber model as well as two Glauber-Gribov inspired extensions to the Glauber model. Charged-particle multiplicities per participant pair are found to vary differently for these three models, highlighting the importance of including colour fluctuations in nucleon-nucleon collisions in the modelling of the initial state of p + Pb collisions.

Abstract: The coupling properties of the Higgs boson are studied in the four-lepton (e, mu) decay channel using 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collision data from the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector. Cross sections are measured for the main production modes in several exclusive regions of the Higgs boson production phase space and are interpreted in terms of coupling modifiers. The inclusive cross section times branching ratio for H -> ZZ* decay and for a Higgs boson absolute rapidity below 2.5 is measured to be 1.73(-0.23)(+0.24)(stat.)(-0.08)(+0.10)(exp.)+/- 0.04(th.) pb compared to the Standard Model prediction of 1.34 +/- 0.09 pb. In addition, the tensor structure. of the Higgs boson couplings is studied using an effective Lagrangian approach for the description of interactions beyond the Standard Model. Constraints are placed on the non-Standard-Model CP-even and CP-odd couplings to Z bosons and on the CP-odd coupling to gluons.