Abstract: A search for flavour-changing neutral current decays of a top quark to an up-type quark (q = u; c) and the Standard Model Higgs boson, where the Higgs boson decays to b (b) over bar, is presented. The analysis searches for top quark pair events in which one top quark decays to W b, with the W boson decaying leptonically, and the other top quark decays to Hq. The search is based on pp collisions at root s = 8TeV recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and uses an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). Data are analysed in the lepton-plus-jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon and at least four jets. The search exploits the high multiplicity of b quark jets characteristic of signal events, and employs a likelihood discriminant that uses the kinematic differences between the signal and the background, which is dominated by t (t) over bar -> WbWb decays. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found, and observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits of 0.56% (0.42%) and 0.61% (0.64%) are derived for the t -> Hc and t -> Hu branching ratios respectively. The combination of this search with other ATLAS searches in the H -> gamma gamma and H -> WW*, tau tau decay modes significantly improves the sensitivity, yielding observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits on the t -> Hc and t -> Hu branching ratios of 0.46% (0.25%) and 0.45% (0.29%) respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the vertical bar lambda(tcH)vertical bar and vertical bar lambda(tuH)vertical bar couplings are 0.13 (0.10) and 0.13 (0.10) respectively. These are the most restrictive direct bounds on t q H interactions measured so far.

Abstract: The dijet production cross section for jets containing a b-hadron (b-jets) has been measured in protonproton collisions with a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.2 fb(-1). The cross section is measured for events with two identified b-jets with a transverse momentum pT > 20 GeV and a minimum separation in the eta-phi plane of Delta R = 0.4. At least one of the jets in the event is required to have p(T) > 270 GeV. The cross section is measured differentially as a function of dijet invariant mass, dijet transverse momentum, boost of the dijet system, and the rapidity difference, azimuthal angle and angular distance between the b-jets. The results are compared to different predictions of leading order and next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics matrix elements supplemented with models for parton-showers and hadronization.

Abstract: A test of CP invariance in Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion using the method of the Optimal Observable is presented. The analysis exploits the decay mode of the Higgs boson into a pair of t leptons and is based on 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. Contributions from CP-violating interactions between the Higgs boson and electroweak gauge bosons are described in an effective field theory framework, in which the strength of CP violation is governed by a single parameter (d) over tilde. The mean values and distributions of CP-odd observables agree with the expectation in the Standard Model and show no sign of CP violation. The CP-mixing parameter (d) over tilde is constrained to the interval (-0.11, 0.05) at 68% confidence level, consistent with the Standard Model expectation of (d) over tilde = 0.