Abstract: A search for single top-quark production via flavour-changing neutral current processes from gluon plus up- or charm-quark initial states in proton-proton collisions at the LHC is presented. Data collected with the ATLAS detector in 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of 8TeV and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) are used. Candidate events for a top quark decaying into a lepton, a neutrino and a jet are selected and classified into signal- and background-like candidates using a neural network. No signal is observed and an upper limit on the production cross-section multiplied by the t -> Wb branching fraction is set. The observed 95% CL limit is sigma(qg -> t) x B(t -> Wb) < 3.4 pb and the expected 95% CL limit is sigma(qg -> t) x B(t -> Wb) < 2.9 pb. The observed limit can be interpreted as upper limits on the coupling constants of the flavour-changing neutral current interactions divided by the scale of new physics kappa(ugt)/Lambda < 5.8 x 10(-3) TeV-1 and kappa(cgt)/Lambda < 13x10(-3) TeV and on the branching fractions B(t -> ug) < 4.0 x 10(-5) and B(t -> cg) < 20 x 10(-5).

Abstract: Searches for pair-produced scalar leptoquarks are performed using 20 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data provided by the LHC and recorded by the ATLAS detector at root s = 8 TeV. Events with two electrons (muons) and two or more jets in the final state are used to search for first (second)-generation leptoquarks. The results from two previously published ATLAS analyses are interpreted in terms of third-generation leptoquarks decaying to b nu(tau)(b) over bar(nu) over bar (tau) and t nu(tau)(t) over bar(nu) over bar (tau) final states. No statistically significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed in any channel and scalar leptoquarks are excluded at 95 % CL with masses up to m(LQ1) < 1050 GeV for first-generation leptoquarks, m(LQ2) < 1000 GeV for second-generation leptoquarks, m(LQ3) 625 GeV for third-generation leptoquarks in the b nu(tau)<(b) over bar(nu) over bar (tau) channel, and 200 < m(LQ3) < 640 GeV in the t nu(tau)(t) over bar(nu) over bar (tau) channel.

Abstract: ATLAS has measured two-particle correlations as a function of the relative azimuthal angle, Delta phi, and pseudorapidity, Delta eta, in root s = 13 and 2.76 TeV pp collisions at the LHC using charged particles measured in the pseudorapidity interval vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5. The correlation functions evaluated in different intervals of measured charged-particle multiplicity show a multiplicity-dependent enhancement at Delta phi similar to 0 that extends over a wide range of Delta eta, which has been referred to as the “ridge.” Per-trigger-particle yields, Y(Delta phi) are measured over 2 < vertical bar Delta eta vertical bar < 5. For both collision energies, the Y(Delta phi) distribution in all multiplicity intervals is found to be consistent with a linear combination of the per-trigger-particle yields measured in collisions with less than 2 phi reconstructed tracks, and a constant combinatoric contribution modulated by cos (2 Delta phi). The fitted Fourier coefficient, nu(2,2), exhibits factorization, suggesting that the ridge results from per-event cos (2 phi) modulation of the single-particle distribution with Fourier coefficients nu(2). The nu(2) values are presented as a function of multiplicity and transverse momentum. They are found to be approximately constant as a function of multiplicity and to have a p(T) dependence similar to that measured in p + Pb and Pb + Pb collisions. The nu(2) values in the 13 and 2.76 TeV data are consistent within uncertainties. These results suggest that the ridge in pp collisions arises from the same or similar underlying physics as observed in p + Pb collisions, and that the dynamics responsible for the ridge has no strong root s dependence.