Abstract: Measurements of the ZZ and WW final states in the mass range above the 2m(Z) and 2m(W) thresholds provide a unique opportunity to measure the off-shell coupling strength of the Higgs boson. This paper presents constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson event yields normalised to the Standard Model prediction (signal strength) in the ZZ -> 4l, ZZ -> 2l2 nu and WW -> e nu μnu final states. The result is based on pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) at a collision energy of root s = 8 TeV. Using the CLs method, the observed 95 % confidence level (CL) upper limit on the off-shell signal strength is in the range 5.1-8.6, with an expected range of 6.7-11.0. In each case the range is determined by varying the unknown gg -> ZZ and gg -> WW background K-factor from higher-order quantum chromodynamics corrections between half and twice the value of the known signal K-factor. Assuming the relevant Higgs boson couplings are independent of the energy scale of the Higgs boson production, a combination with the on-shell measurements yields an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on Gamma(H)/Gamma(SM)(H) in the range 4.5-7.5 (6.5-11.2) using the same variations of the background K-factor. Assuming that the unknown gg -> VV background K-factor is equal to the signal K-factor, this translates into an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV.

Abstract: This Letter describes the measurement of elliptic flow of charged particles in lead-lead collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The results are based on an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 μb(-1). Elliptic flow is measured over a wide region in pseudorapidity, vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5, and over a broad range in transverse momentum, 0.5 < p(T) < 20 GeV. The elliptic flow parameter nu(2) is obtained by correlating individual tracks with the event plane measured using energy deposited in the forward calorimeters. As a function of transverse momentum, nu(2)(p(T)) reaches a maximum at p(T) of about 3 GeV. then decreases and becomes weakly dependent on p(T) above 7-8 GeV. Over the measured pseudorapidity region, nu(2) is found to be only weakly dependent on eta, with less variation than observed at lower beam energies. The results are discussed in the context of previous measurements at lower collision energies, as well as recent results from the LHC.

Abstract: The top quark mass was measured in the channels t (t) over bar -> lepton+jets and t (t) over bar -> dilepton (lepton = e, mu) based on ATLAS data recorded in 2011. The data were taken at the LHC with a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1). The t (t) over bar -> lepton+jets analysis uses a three-dimensional template technique which determines the top quark mass together with a global jet energy scale factor (JSF), and a relative b-to-light-jet energy scale factor (bJSF), where the terms b-jets and light-jets refer to jets originating from b-quarks and u,d,c, s-quarks or gluons, respectively. The analysis of the t (t) over bar -> dilepton channel exploits a one-dimensional template method using the m(lb) observable, defined as the average invariant mass of the two lepton+b-jet pairs in each event. The top quark mass is measured to be 172.33 +/- 0.75(stat + JSF + bJSF) +/- 1.02(syst) GeV, and 173.79 +/- 0.54(stat) +/- 1.30(syst) GeV in the t (t) over bar -> lepton+jets and t (t) over bar -> dilepton channels, respectively. The combination of the two results yields m(top) = 172.99 +/- 0.48(stat) +/- 0.78(syst) GeV, with a total uncertainty of 0.91 GeV.