Abstract: The results of a search for the top squark, the supersymmetric partner of the top quark, in final states with one isolated electron or muon, jets, and missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses the 2015 LHC pp collision data at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb(-1). The analysis targets two types of signal models: gluino-mediated pair production of top squarks with a nearly mass-degenerate top squark and neutralino and direct pair production of top squarks, decaying to the top quark and the lightest neutralino. The experimental signature in both signal scenarios is similar to that of a top quark pair produced in association with large missing transverse momentum. No significant excess over the Standard Model background prediction is observed, and exclusion limits on gluino and top squark masses are set at 95% confidence level. The results extend the LHC run-1 exclusion limit on the gluino mass up to 1460 GeV in the gluino-mediated scenario in the high gluino and low top squark mass region and add an excluded top squark mass region from 745 to 780 GeV for the direct top squark model with a massless lightest neutralino. The results are also reinterpreted to set exclusion limits in a model of vectorlike top quarks.

Abstract: A search for direct pair production of top squarks in final states with two tau leptons, b-jets, and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data at root s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. Two exclusive channels with either two hadronically decaying tau leptons or one hadronically and one leptonically decaying tau lepton are considered. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed in the data. The analysis results are interpreted in terms of model-independent limits and used to derive exclusion limits on the masses of the top squark (t) over tilde (1) and the tau slepton (tau) over tilde (1) in a simplified model of supersymmetry with a nearly massless gravitino. In this model, masses up to m((t) over tilde (1)) = 1.16 TeV and m ((tau) over tilde (1)) = 1.00 TeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.

Abstract: A search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a top-quark pair, t(t)overbar H, is presented. The analysis uses 36.1 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 13 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2015 and 2016. The search targets the H -> b(b)overbar decay mode. The selected events contain either one or two electrons or muons from the top-quark decays, and are then categorized according to the number of jets and how likely these are to contain b-hadrons. Multivariate techniques are used to discriminate between signal and background events, the latter being dominated by ft + jets production. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, the ratio of the measured t(t)overbarH signal cross-section to the standard model expectation is found to be μ= 0.84(-0.61)(+0.64). A value of μgreater than 2.0 is excluded at 95% confidence level (C.L.) while the expected upper limit is μ< 1.2 in the absence of a t(t)overbar H signal.