Abstract: The first observation of Z boson production in proton-lead collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per proton-nucleon pair of root(s) N N = 5TeV is presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 nb(-1) collected with the LHCb detector. The Z candidates are reconstructed from pairs of oppositely charged muons with pseudorapidities between 2.0 and 4.5 and transverse momenta above 20 GeV/c. The invariant dimuon mass is restricted to the range 60-120 GeV/c. The Z production cross-section is measured to be sigma(Z ->mu+mu-) (fwd) = 13.5(-4.0)(+5.4)(stat.) +/- 1.2(syst.) nb in the direction of the proton beam and sigma(Z ->mu+mu-) (bwd) = 10.7(-5.1)(+8.4)(stat.) +/- 1.0(syst.) nb in the direction of the lead beam, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.

Abstract: We present statistically convergent profile likelihood maps obtained via global fits of a phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with 15 free parameters (the MSSM-15), based on over 250M points. We derive constraints on the model parameters from direct detection limits on dark matter, the Planck relic density measurement and data from accelerator searches. We provide a detailed analysis of the rich phenomenology of this model, and determine the SUSY mass spectrum and dark matter properties that are preferred by current experimental constraints. We evaluate the impact of the measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon (g – 2) on our results, and provide an analysis of scenarios in which the lightest neutralino is a subdominant component of the dark matter. The MSSM-15 parameters are relatively weakly constrained by current data sets, with the exception of the parameters related to dark matter phenomenology (M-1, M-2, mu), which are restricted to the sub-TeV regime, mainly due to the relic density constraint. The mass of the lightest neutralino is found to be < 1.5TeV at 99% C.L., but can extend up to 3 TeV when excluding the g – 2 constraint from the analysis. Low-mass bino-like neutralinos are strongly favoured, with spin-independent scattering cross-sections extending to very small values, similar to 10(-20) pb. ATLAS SUSY null searches strongly impact on this mass range, and thus rule out a region of parameter space that is outside the reach of any current or future direct detection experiment. The best-fit point obtained after inclusion of all data corresponds to a squark mass of 2.3 TeV, a gluino mass of 2.1 TeV and a 130 GeV neutralino with a spin-independent cross-section of 2.4 x 10(-10) pb, which is within the reach of future multi-ton scale direct detection experiments and of the upcoming LHC run at increased centre-of-mass energy.

Abstract: The semiconductor tracker is a silicon microstrip detector forming part of the inner tracking system of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The operation and performance of the semiconductor tracker during the first years of LHC running are described. More than 99% of the detector modules were operational during this period, with an average intrinsic hit efficiency of (99.74 +/- 0.04)%. The evolution of the noise occupancy is discussed, and measurements of the Lorentz angle, delta-ray production and energy loss presented. The alignment of the detector is found to be stable at the few-micron level over long periods of time. Radiation damage measurements, which include the evolution of detector leakage currents, are found to be consistent with predictions and are used in the verification of radiation background simulations.

Abstract: A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton and zero or one additional light leptons (electron/muon), has been performed using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed in the various signal regions and 95% confidence level upper limits on the visible cross section for new phenomena are set. The results of the analysis are interpreted in several SUSY scenarios, significantly extending previous limits obtained in the same final states. In the framework of minimal gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models, values of the SUSY breaking scale Lambda below 63 TeV are excluded, independently of tan beta. Exclusion limits are also derived for an mSUGRA/CMSSM model, in both the R-parity-conserving and R-parity-violating case. A further interpretation is presented in a framework of natural gauge mediation, in which the gluino is assumed to be the only light coloured sparticle and gluino masses below 1090 GeV are excluded.

Abstract: In this paper we study the nonperturbative structure of the SU(3) four-gluon vertex in the Landau gauge, concentrating on contributions quadratic in the metric. We employ an approximation scheme where “one-loop” diagrams are computed using fully dressed gluon and ghost propagators, and tree-level vertices. When a suitable kinematical configuration depending on a single momentum scale p is chosen, only two structures emerge: the tree-level four-gluon vertex, and a tensor orthogonal to it. A detailed numerical analysis reveals that the form factor associated with this latter tensor displays a change of sign (zero-crossing) in the deep infrared, and finally diverges logarithmically. The origin of this characteristic behavior is proven to be entirely due to the masslessness of the ghost propagators forming the corresponding ghost-loop diagram, in close analogy to a similar effect established for the three-gluon vertex. However, in the case at hand, and under the approximations employed, this particular divergence does not affect the form factor proportional to the tree-level tensor, which remains finite in the entire range of momenta, and deviates moderately from its naive tree-level value. It turns out that the kinematic configuration chosen is ideal for carrying out lattice simulations, because it eliminates from the connected Green's function all one-particle reducible contributions, projecting out the genuine one-particle irreducible vertex. Motivated by this possibility, we discuss in detail how a hypothetical lattice measurement of this quantity would compare to the results presented here, and the potential interference from an additional tensorial structure, allowed by Bose symmetry, but not encountered within our scheme.