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: Results of a search for supersymmetry via direct production of third-generation squarks are reported, using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. Two different analysis strategies based on monojetlike and c-tagged event selections are carried out to optimize the sensitivity for direct top squark-pair production in the decay channel to a charm quark and the lightest neutralino ((t) over tilde (1) -> c + (chi) over tilde (0)(1)) across the top squark-neutralino mass parameter space. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of direct pair production of top squarks and presented in terms of exclusion limits in the (m((t) over tilde1), m((chi) over tilde 10)) parameter space. A top squark of mass up to about 240 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level for arbitrary neutralino masses, within the kinematic boundaries. Top squark masses up to 270 GeV are excluded for a neutralino mass of 200 GeV. In a scenario where the top squark and the lightest neutralino are nearly degenerate in mass, top squark masses up to 260 GeV are excluded. The results from the monojetlike analysis are also interpreted in terms of compressed scenarios for top squark-pair production in the decay channel (t) over tilde (1) -> b + ff' + (chi) over tilde (0)(1) and sbottom pair production with (b) over tilde -> b + (chi) over tilde (0)(1), leading to a similar exclusion for nearly mass-degenerate third-generation squarks and the lightest neutralino. The results in this paper significantly extend previous results at colliders.

Abstract: Dijet events produced in LHC proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy root s = 8 TeV are studied with the ATLAS detector using the full 2012 data set, with an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). Dijet masses up to about 4.5 TeV are probed. No resonancelike features are observed in the dijet mass spectrum. Limits on the cross section times acceptance are set at the 95% credibility level for various hypotheses of new phenomena in terms of mass or energy scale, as appropriate. This analysis excludes excited quarks with a mass below 4.06 TeV, color-octet scalars with a mass below 2.70 TeV, heavy W' bosons with a mass below 2.45 TeV, chiral W* bosons with a mass below 1.75 TeV, and quantum black holes with six extra space-time dimensions with threshold mass below 5.66 TeV.

Abstract: Simultaneous measurements of the t (t) over bar, W+W-, and Z/gamma* -> tau tau production cross-sections using an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC are presented. Events are selected with two high transverse momentum leptons consisting of an oppositely charged electron and muon pair. The three processes are separated using the distributions of the missing transverse momentum of events with zero and greater than zero jet multiplicities. Measurements of the fiducial cross-section are presented along with results that quantify for the first time the underlying correlations in the predicted and measured cross-sections due to proton parton distribution functions. These results indicate that the correlated next-to-leading-order predictions for t (t) over bar and Z/gamma* -> tau tau underestimate the data, while those at next-to-next-to-leading-order generally describe the data well. The full cross-sections are measured to be sigma(t (t) over bar) = 181.2 +/- 2.8(-9.5)(+9.7) +/- 3.3 +/- 3.3 pb, sigma(W+W-) = 53.3 +/- 2.7(-8.0)(+7.3) +/- 1.0 +/- 0.5 pb, and sigma(Z/gamma* -> tau tau) = 1174 +/- 24(-87)(+72) +/- 21 +/- 9 pb, where the cited uncertainties are due to statistics, systematic effects, luminosity and the LHC beam energy measurement, respectively. The W+W- measurement includes the small contribution from Higgs boson decays, H -> W+W-.

Abstract: The momentum-weighted sum of the charges of tracks associated to a jet is sensitive to the charge of the initiating quark or gluon. This paper presents a measurement of the distribution of momentum-weighted sums, called jet charge, in dijet events using 20.3 fb(-1) of data recorded with the ATLAS detector at root s = 8 TeV in pp collisions at the LHC. The jet charge distribution is unfolded to remove distortions from detector effects and the resulting particle-level distribution is compared with several models. The p(T) dependence of the jet charge distribution average and standard deviation are compared to predictions obtained with several leading-order and next-to-leading-order parton distribution functions. The data are also compared to different Monte Carlo simulations of QCD dijet production using various settings of the free parameters within these models. The chosen value of the strong coupling constant used to calculate gluon radiation is found to have a significant impact on the predicted jet charge. There is evidence for a pT dependence of the jet charge distribution for a given jet flavor. In agreement with perturbative QCD predictions, the data show that the average jet charge of quark-initiated jets decreases in magnitude as the energy of the jet increases.