Abstract: This paper describes a measurement of the inclusive top quark pair production cross-section (sigma(t (t) over bar)) with a data sample of 3.2 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root 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 sigma(t (t) over bar) and 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: s(t (t) over bar)= 818 +/- 8 (stat) +/- 27 (syst) +/- 19 (lumi) +/- 12 (beam) 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.

Abstract: This Letter reports evidence of triple gauge boson production pp -> W(l nu)gamma gamma + X, which is accessible for the first time with the 8 TeV LHC data set. The fiducial cross section for this process is measured in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1), collected by the ATLAS detector in 2012. Events are selected using the W boson decay to e nu or μnu as well as requiring two isolated photons. The measured cross section is used to set limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings in the high diphoton mass region.

Abstract: 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: vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar < 1.37 and 1.56 < vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar < 2.37. The measurement covers photon transverse energies 25 < E-T(gamma) < 400 GeV and 25 < E-T(gamma) < 350 GeV respectively for the two vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar regions. For each jet flavour, the ratio of the cross sections in the two vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar 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.

Abstract: This Letter presents a search for new resonances with mass larger than 250 GeV, decaying to a Z boson and a photon. The dataset consists of an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1) of pp collisions collected at root s = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The Z bosons are identified through their decays either to charged, light, lepton pairs (e(+) e(-), mu(+) mu(-)) or to hadrons. The data are found to be consistent with the expected background in the whole mass range investigated and upper limits are set on the production cross section times decay branching ratio to Z gamma of a narrow scalar boson with mass between 250 GeV and 2.75 TeV.

Abstract: This Letter presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of new (pseudo) scalar particles, H -> aa, where the a particle has a mass in the range 20-60 GeV, and where one of the a bosons decays into a pair of photons and the other to a pair of gluons. The search is performed in event samples enhanced in vector-boson fusion Higgs boson production by requiring two jets with large invariant mass in addition to the Higgs boson candidate decay products. The analysis is based on the full dataset of pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.7 fb(-1). The data are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions and an upper limit at the 95% confidence level is placed on the production cross section times the branching ratio for the decay H -> aa -> gamma gamma gg. This limit ranges from 3.1 pb to 9.0 pb depending on the mass of the a boson.