Abstract: Two searches for supersymmetric particles in final states containing a same-flavour opposite-sign lepton pair, jets and large missing transverse momentum are presented. The proton-proton collision data used in these searches were collected at a centre-of-mass energy root s = 8TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1). Two leptonic production mechanisms are considered: decays of squarks and gluinos with Z bosons in the final state, resulting in a peak in the dilepton invariant mass distribution around the Z-boson mass; and decays of neutralinos (e.g.. (chi) over tilde (0)(2) -> l(+)l(-) (chi) over tilde (0)(1)), resulting in a kinematic endpoint in the dilepton invariant mass distribution. For the former, an excess of events above the expected Standard Model background is observed, with a significance of three standard deviations. In the latter case, the data are well-described by the expected Standard Model background. The results from each channel are interpreted in the context of several supersymmetric models involving the production of squarks and gluinos.

Abstract: A search for pair production of vector-like quarks, both up-type (T) and down-type (B), as well as for four-top-quark production, is presented. The search is based on pp collisions at TeV recorded in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to 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 with high transverse momentum, large missing transverse momentum and multiple jets. Dedicated analyses are performed targeting three cases: a T quark with significant branching ratio to a W boson and a b-quark , and both a T quark and a B quark with significant branching ratio to a Higgs boson and a third-generation quark ( respectively). No significant excess of events above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and 95% CL lower limits are derived on the masses of the vector-like T and B quarks under several branching ratio hypotheses assuming contributions from T -> Wb, Zt, Ht and B -> Wt, Zb, Hb decays. The 95% CL observed lower limits on the T quark mass range between 715 GeV and 950 GeV for all possible values of the branching ratios into the three decay modes, and are the most stringent constraints to date. Additionally, the most restrictive upper bounds on four-top-quark production are set in a number of new physics scenarios.

Abstract: A search for Higgs boson decays to invisible particles is performed using 20,3 of fb(-1) collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ArL As detector at the Large IHIadron Collider. The process considered is Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson (V = W or Z) that decays hadronically, resulting in events with two or more jets and large missing transverse momentum. No excess of candidates is observed in the data over the background expectation. The results are used to constrain V H production followed by H decaying to invisible particles for the Higgs boson mass range 115 < m(H) < 300 GeV. The 95 % confidence-level observed upper limit on sigma vH x BR(H -> inv.) varies from 1.6 pb at 115 GeV to 0.13 ph at 300 GeV. Assuming Standard Model production and including the gg -> H contribution as signal, the results also lead to an observed upper limit of 78 c/c at 95 % confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decays to invisible particles at a mass of 125 GeV.