Abstract: A search for direct pair production of the supersymmetric partner of the top quark, decaying via a scalar tau to a nearly massless gravitino, has been performed using 20 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV. The data were collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. Top squark candidates are searched for in events with either two hadronically decaying tau leptons, one hadronically decaying tau and one light lepton, or two light leptons. No significant excess over the Standard Model expectation is found. Exclusion limits at 95 % confidence level are set as a function of the top squark and scalar tau masses. Depending on the scalar tau mass, ranging from the 87 GeV LEP limit to the top squark mass, lower limits between 490 and 650 GeV are placed on the top squark mass within the model considered.

Abstract: A search for direct top squark pair production resulting in events with either a same-flavour opposite-sign dilepton pair with invariant mass compatible with a Z boson or a pair of jets compatible with a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h) is presented. Requirements on the missing transverse momentum, together with additional selections on leptons, jets, jets identified as originating from b-quarks are imposed to target the other decay products of the top squark pair. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 20152016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). No excess is observed in the data with respect to the SM predictions. The results are interpreted in two sets of models. In the first set, direct production of pairs of lighter top squarks ((t) over tilde (1)) with long decay chains involving Z or Higgs bosons is considered. The second set includes direct pair production of the heavier top squark pairs ((t) over tilde (2)) decaying via (t) over tilde (2) -> Z (t) over tilde (1) or (t) over tilde (2) -> h (t) over tilde (1). The results exclude at 95% confidence level (t) over tilde (2) and (t) over tilde (1) masses up to about 800 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous LHC searches.

Abstract: A search for doubly charged scalar bosons decaying into W boson pairs is presented. It uses a data sample from proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1fb-1 collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV in 2015 and 2016. This search is guided by a model that includes an extension of the Higgs sector through a scalar triplet, leading to a rich phenomenology that includes doubly charged scalar bosons H +/-+/-. Those bosons are produced in pairs in proton-proton collisions and decay predominantly into electroweak gauge bosons H +/-+/- W +/- W +/-. Experimental signatures with several leptons, missing transverse energy and jets are explored. No significant deviations from the Standard Model predictions are found. The parameter space of the benchmark model is excluded at 95% confidence level for H +/-+/- bosons with masses between 200 and 220 GeV.

Abstract: A search for electroweak production of supersymmetric particles is performed in two-lepton and three-lepton final states using recursive jigsaw reconstruction, a technique that assigns reconstructed objects to the most probable hemispheres of the decay trees, allowing one to construct tailored kinematic variables to separate the signal and background. The search uses data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment in root s = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Chargino-neutralino pair production, with decays via W/Z bosons, is studied in final states involving leptons and jets and missing transverse momentum for scenarios with large and intermediate mass splittings between the parent particle and lightest supersymmetric particle, as well as for the scenario where this mass splitting is close to the mass of the Z boson. The latter case is challenging since the vector bosons are produced with kinematic properties that are similar to those in Standard Model processes. Results are found to be compatible with the Standard Model expectations in the signal regions targeting large and intermediate mass splittings, and chargino-neutralino masses up to 600 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for a massless lightest supersymmetric particle. Excesses of data above the expected background are found in the signal regions targeting low mass splittings, and the largest local excess amounts to 3.0 standard deviations.

Abstract: A search for excited electrons produced in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV via a contact interaction q (q) over bar -> ee* is presented. The search uses 36.1 fb(-1) of data collected in 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Decays of the excited electron into an electron and a pair of quarks (eq (q) over bar) are targeted in final states with two electrons and two hadronic jets, and decays via a gauge interaction into a neutrino and a W boson (nu W) are probed in final states with an electron, missing transverse momentum, and a large-radius jet consistent with a hadronically decaying W boson. No significant excess is observed over the expected backgrounds. Upper limits are calculated for the pp -> ee* -> eeq (q) over bar and pp -> ee* -> e nu W production cross sections as a function of the excited electron mass m(e)* at 95% confidence level. The limits are translated into lower bounds on the compositeness scale parameter Lambda of the model as a function of m(e)*. For m(e)* < 0.5 TeV, the lower bound for Lambda is 11 TeV. In the special case of m(e)* = Lambda, the values of m(e)* < 4.8 TeV are excluded. The presented limits on Lambda are more stringent than those obtained in previous searches.