Abstract: Measurements of the ZZ and WW final states in the mass range above the 2m(Z) and 2m(W) thresholds provide a unique opportunity to measure the off-shell coupling strength of the Higgs boson. This paper presents constraints on the off-shell Higgs boson event yields normalised to the Standard Model prediction (signal strength) in the ZZ -> 4l, ZZ -> 2l2 nu and WW -> e nu μnu final states. The result is based on pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb(-1) at a collision energy of root s = 8 TeV. Using the CLs method, the observed 95 % confidence level (CL) upper limit on the off-shell signal strength is in the range 5.1-8.6, with an expected range of 6.7-11.0. In each case the range is determined by varying the unknown gg -> ZZ and gg -> WW background K-factor from higher-order quantum chromodynamics corrections between half and twice the value of the known signal K-factor. Assuming the relevant Higgs boson couplings are independent of the energy scale of the Higgs boson production, a combination with the on-shell measurements yields an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on Gamma(H)/Gamma(SM)(H) in the range 4.5-7.5 (6.5-11.2) using the same variations of the background K-factor. Assuming that the unknown gg -> VV background K-factor is equal to the signal K-factor, this translates into an observed (expected) 95 % CL upper limit on the Higgs boson total width of 22.7 (33.0) MeV.

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: Recently the ATLAS experiment announced a 3 sigma excess at the Z-peak consisting of 29 pairs of leptons together with two or more jets, E-T(miss) > 225 GeV and H-T > 600 GeV, to be compared with 10.6 +/- 3.2 expected lepton pairs in the Standard Model. No excess outside the Z-peak was observed. By trying to explain this signal with SUSY we find that only relatively light gluinos, m((g) over bar) less than or similar to 1.2 TeV, together with a heavy neutralino NLSP of m((chi) over bar) greater than or similar to 400 GeV decaying predominantly to Z-boson plus a light gravitino, such that nearly every gluino produces at least one Z-boson in its decay chain, could reproduce the excess. We construct an explicit general gauge mediation model able to reproduce the observed signal overcoming all the experimental limits. Needless to say, more sophisticated models could also reproduce the signal, however, any model would have to exhibit the following features: light gluinos, or heavy particles with a strong production cross section, producing at least one Z-boson in its decay chain. The implications of our findings for the Run II at LHC with the scaling on the Z peak, as well as for the direct search of gluinos and other SUSY particles, are pointed out.