Abstract: A search for heavy resonances decaying into a pair of Z bosons leading to l(+) l(-) l(+) l(-) and l(+) l(-) nu(nu) over bar final states, where l stands for either an electron or a muon, is presented. The search uses proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected with the ATLAS detector during 2015 and 2016 at the Large Hadron Collider. Different mass ranges for the hypothetical resonances are considered, depending on the final state and model. The different ranges span between 200 and 2000 GeV. The results are interpreted as upper limits on the production cross section of a spin-0 or spin-2 resonance. The upper limits for the spin-0 resonance are translated to exclusion contours in the context of Type-I and Type-II two-Higgs-doublet models, while those for the spin-2 resonance are used to constrain the Randall-Sundrum model with an extra dimension giving rise to spin-2 graviton excitations.

Abstract: An inclusive search for anomalous production of two prompt, isolated muons with the same electric charge is presented. The search is performed in a data sample corresponding to 1.6 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected in 2011 at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Muon pairs are selected by requiring two isolated muons of the same electric charge with p(T) > 20 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5. Minimal requirements are placed on the rest of the event activity. The distribution of the invariant mass of the muon pair m(mu mu) is found to agree well with the background expectation. Upper limits on the cross section for anomalous production of two muons with the same electric charge are placed as a function of m(mu mu) within a fiducial region defined by the event selection. The fiducial cross-section limit constrains the like-sign top-quark pair-production cross section to be below 3.7 pb at 95% confidence level. The data are also analyzed to search for a narrow like-sign dimuon resonance as predicted for e. g. doubly charged Higgs bosons (H-+/-+/-). Assuming pair production of H-+/-+/- bosons and a branching ratio to muons of 100% (33%), this analysis excludes masses below 355 (244) GeV and 251 (209) GeV for H-+/-+/- bosons coupling to left-handed and right-handed fermions, respectively.

Abstract: Pseudorapidity gap distributions in proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV are studied using a minimum bias data sample with an integrated luminosity of 7.1 μb(-1). Cross sections are measured differentially in terms of Delta eta(F), the larger of the pseudorapidity regions extending to the limits of the ATLAS sensitivity, at eta = +/- 4.9, in which no final state particles are produced above a transverse momentum threshold p(T)(cut). The measurements span the region 0 < Delta eta(F) < 8 for 200 MeV < p(T)(cut) < 800 MeV. At small Delta eta(F), the data test the reliability of hadronisation models in describing rapidity and transverse momentum fluctuations in final state particle production. The measurements at larger gap sizes are dominated by contributions from the single diffractive dissociation process (pp -> Xp), enhanced by double dissociation (pp -> XY) where the invariant mass of the lighter of the two dissociation systems satisfies M-Y less than or similar to 7 GeV. The resulting cross section is ds sigma/d Delta eta(F) approximate to 1 mb for Delta eta(F) greater than or similar to 3. The large rapidity gap data are used to constrain the value of the Pomeron intercept appropriate to triple Regge models of soft diffraction. The cross section integrated over all gap sizes is compared with other LHC inelastic cross section measurements.