Abstract: The MoEDAL experiment is designed to search for magnetic monopoles and other highly-ionising particles produced in high-energy collisions at the LHC. The largely passive MoEDAL detector, deployed at Interaction Point 8 on the LHC ring, relies on two dedicated direct detection techniques. The first technique is based on stacks of nuclear-track detectors with surface area similar to 18 m(2), sensitive to particle ionisation exceeding a high threshold. These detectors are analysed offline by optical scanning microscopes. The second technique is based on the trapping of charged particles in an array of roughly 800 kg of aluminium samples. These samples are monitored offline for the presence of trapped magnetic charge at a remote superconducting magnetometer facility. We present here the results of a search for magnetic monopoles using a 160 kg prototype MoEDAL trapping detector exposed to 8TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC, for an integrated luminosity of 0.75 fb(-1). No magnetic charge exceeding 0.5g(D) (where g(D) is the Dirac magnetic charge) is measured in any of the exposed samples, allowing limits to be placed on monopole production in the mass range 100 GeV <= m <= 3500 GeV. Model-independent cross-section limits are presented in fiducial regions of monopole energy and direction for 1g(D) <= vertical bar g vertical bar <= 6g(D), and model-dependent cross-section limits are obtained for Drell-Yan pair production of spin-1/2 and spin-0 monopoles for 1g(D) <= vertical bar g vertical bar <= 4g(D). Under the assumption of Drell-Yan cross sections, mass limits are derived for vertical bar g vertical bar = 2g(D) and vertical bar g vertical bar = 3g(D) for the first time at the LHC, surpassing the results from previous collider experiments.

Abstract: A search is presented for production of dark-matter particles recoiling against a leptonically decaying Z boson in 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with large missing transverse momentum and two oppositely charged electrons or muons consistent with the decay of a Z boson are analyzed. No excess above the Standard Model prediction is observed. Limits are set on the mass scale of the contact interaction as a function of the dark-matter particle mass using an effective field theory description of the interaction of dark matter with quarks or with Z bosons. Limits are also set on the coupling and mediator mass of a model in which the interaction is mediated by a scalar particle.

Abstract: A generic search is presented for a heavy particle decaying to WZ -> lvl'l' (l, l' = e, mu) final states. The data were recorded by the ATLAS detector in root s = 7 TeV pp collisions at the Large Hadron Collider and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.02 fb(-1). The transverse mass distribution of the selected WZ candidates is found to be consistent with the standard model expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio are derived using two benchmark models predicting a heavy particle decaying to a WZ pair.

Abstract: Using the ATLAS detector, a centrality-dependent suppression has been observed in the yield of J/psi mesons produced in the collisions of lead ions at the Large Hadron Collider. In a sample of minimum-bias lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre of mass energy root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 6.7 μb(-1), J/psi mesons are reconstructed via their decays to mu(+)mu(-) pairs. The measured J/psi yield, normalized to the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to significantly decrease from peripheral to central collisions. The centrality dependence is found to be qualitatively similar to the trends observed at previous, lower energy experiments. The same sample is used to reconstruct Z bosons in the mu(+)mu(-) final state, and a total of 38 candidates are selected in the mass window of 66 to 116 GeV. The relative Z yields as a function of centrality are also presented, although no conclusion can be inferred about their scaling with the number of binary collisions, because of limited statistics. This analysis provides the first results on J/psi and Z production in lead-lead collisions at the LHC.

Abstract: A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the decay channel H -> ZZ(()*()) l(+)l(-)l'l'(-), where l = e, mu, is presented. Proton-proton collision data at root s = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector and corresponding to an average integrated luminosity of 2.1 fb(-1) are compared to the Standard Model expectations. Upper limits on the production cross section of a Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass between 110 and 600 GeV are derived. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit on the production cross section for a Higgs boson with a mass of 194 GeV, the region with the best expected sensitivity for this search, is 0.99 (1.01) times the Standard Model prediction. The Standard Model Higgs boson is excluded at 95% confidence level in the mass ranges 191-197, 199-200 and 214-224 GeV.