Abstract: A search for highly ionizing particles produced in proton-proton collisions at 8 TeV center-of-mass energy is performed by the ATLAS Collaboration at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 7.0 fb(-1). A customized trigger significantly increases the sensitivity, permitting a search for such particles with charges and energies beyond what was previously accessible. No events were found in the signal region, leading to production cross section upper limits in the mass range 200-2500 GeV for magnetic monopoles with magnetic charge in the range 0.5g(D) < vertical bar g vertical bar < 2.0g(D), where g(D) is the Dirac charge, and for stable particles with electric charge in the range 10 < vertical bar z vertical bar < 60. Model-dependent limits are presented in given pair-production scenarios, and model-independent limits are presented in fiducial regions of particle energy and pseudorapidity.

Abstract: A search for the decay to a pair of new particles of either the 125 GeV Higgs boson (h) or a second charge parity (CP)-even Higgs boson (H) is presented. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. The search was done in the context of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, in which the new particles are the lightest neutral pseudoscalar Higgs bosons (a). One of the two a bosons is required to decay to two muons while the other is required to decay to two tau leptons. No significant excess is observed above the expected backgrounds in the dimuon invariant mass range from 3.7 to 50 GeV. Upper limits are placed on the production of h -> aa relative to the standard model gg -> h production, assuming no coupling of the a boson to quarks. The most stringent limit is placed at 3.5% for m(a) = 3.75 GeV. Upper limits are also placed on the production cross section of H -> aa from 2.33 to 0.72 pb, for fixed m(a) = GeV with m(H) ranging from 100 to 500 GeV.

Abstract: This paper presents a search for Higgs bosons decaying to four leptons, either electrons or muons, via one or two light exotic gauge bosons Z(d), H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l or H -> Z(d)Z(d) -> 4l. The search was performed using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb(-1) at the center-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are well described by the Standard Model prediction. Upper bounds on the branching ratio of H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l and on the kinetic mixing parameter between the Z(d) and the Standard Model hypercharge gauge boson are set in the range (1-9) x 10(-5) and (4-17) x 10(-2) respectively, at 95% confidence level assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of H -> ZZ* -> 4l, for Z(d) masses between 15 and 55 GeV. Upper bounds on the effective mass mixing parameter between the Z and the Z(d) are also set using the branching ratio limits in the H -> ZZ(d) -> 4l search, and are in the range (1.5-8.7) x 10(-4) for 15 < m(Zd) < 35 GeV. Upper bounds on the branching ratio of H -> Z(d)Z(d) -> 4l and on the Higgs portal coupling parameter, controlling the strength of the coupling of the Higgs boson to dark vector bosons are set in the range (2-3) x 10(-5) and (1-10) x 10(-4) respectively, at 95% confidence level assuming the Standard Model Higgs boson production cross sections, for Z(d) masses between 15 and 60 GeV.