Abstract: This paper presents studies of the performance of several jet-substructure techniques, which are used to identify hadronically decaying top quarks with high transverse momentum contained in large-radius jets. The efficiency of identifying top quarks is measured using a sample of top-quark pairs and the rate of wrongly identifying jets from other quarks or gluons as top quarks is measured using multijet events collected with the ATLAS experiment in 20.3 fb(-1) of 8TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider. Predictions from Monte Carlo simulations are found to provide an accurate description of the performance. The techniques are compared in terms of signal efficiency and background rejection using simulations, covering a larger range in jet transverse momenta than accessible in the dataset. Additionally, a novel technique is developed that is optimized to reconstruct top quarks in events with many jets.

Abstract: Results of a search for new phenomena in events with an energetic photon and large missing transverse momentum with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider are reported. The data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of- mass energy of 13TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1). The observed data are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. Exclusion limits are presented in models of new phenomena including pair production of dark matter candidates or large extra spatial dimensions. In a simplified model of dark matter and an axial-vector mediator, the search excludes mediator masses below 710 GeV for dark matter candidate masses below 150 GeV. In an effective theory of dark matter production, values of the suppression scale M-* up to 570 GeV are excluded and the effect of truncation for various coupling values is reported. For the ADD large extra spatial dimension model the search places more stringent limits than earlier searches in the same event topology, excluding M-D up to about 2.3 (2.8) TeV for two (six) additional spatial dimensions; the limits are reduced by 20 40% depending on the number of additional spatial dimensions when applying a truncation procedure.

Abstract: Searches for new resonances decaying into two photons in the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider are described. The analysis is based on protonproton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1) at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015. Two searches are performed, one targeted at a spin-2 particle of mass larger than 500 GeV, using Randall-Sundrum graviton states as a benchmark model, and one optimized for a spin-0 particle of mass larger than 200 GeV. Varying both the mass and the decay width, the most significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed at a diphoton invariant mass around 750 GeV with local significances of 3.8 and 3.9 standard deviations in the searches optimized for a spin-2 and spin-0 particle, respectively. The global significances are estimated to be 2.1 standard deviations for both analyses. The consistency between the data collected at 13TeV and 8TeV is also evaluated. Limits on the production cross section times branching ratio to two photons for the two resonance types are reported.

Abstract: The angular distributions of Drell-Yan charged lepton pairs in the vicinity of the Z-boson mass peak probe the underlying QCD dynamics of Z-boson production. This paper presents a measurement of the complete set of angular coefficients Lambda(0-7) describing these distributions in the Z-boson Collins-Soper frame. The data analysed correspond to 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collisions at root s = 8TeV, collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC. The measurements are compared to the most precise fixed-order calculations currently available (O (alpha(2)(s))) and with theoretical predictions embedded in Monte Carlo generators. The measurements are precise enough to probe QCD corrections beyond the formal accuracy of these calculations and to provide discrimination between different parton-shower models. A signi fi cant deviation from the O (alpha(2)(s)) predictions is observed for A(0)-A(2). Evidence is found for non-zero A(5,6, 7), consistent with expectations.

Abstract: Measurements of the jet activity in t (t) over bar events produced in proton-proton collisions at root s = 8 TeV are presented, using 20.3 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The events were selected in the dilepton e μdecay channel with two identified b-jets. The numbers of additional jets for various jet transverse momentum ( p(T)) thresholds, and the normalised differential cross-sections as a function of p(T) for the five highest-p(T) additional jets, were measured in the jet pseudorapidity range broken vertical bar eta broken vertical bar < 4.5. The gap fraction, the fraction of events which do not contain an additional jet in a central rapidity region, was measured for several rapidity intervals as a function of the minimum p(T) of a single jet or the scalar sum of p(T) of all additional jets. These fractions were also measured in different intervals of the invariant mass of the e μb<(b)over bar> b system. All measurements were corrected for detector effects, and found to be mostly well-described by predictions from next-to-leading-order and leading-order t (t) over bar t event generators with appropriate parameter choices. The results can be used to further optimise the parameters used in such generators.