Abstract: A novel technique to identify and split clusters created by multiple charged particles in the ATLAS pixel detector using a set of artificial neural networks is presented. Such merged clusters are a common feature of tracks originating from highly energetic objects, such as jets. Neural networks are trained using Monte Carlo samples produced with a detailed detector simulation. This technique replaces the former clustering approach based on a connected component analysis and charge interpolation. The performance of the neural network splitting technique is quantified using data from proton-proton collisions at the LHC collected by the ATLAS detector in 2011 and from Monte Carlo simulations. This technique reduces the number of clusters shared between tracks in highly energetic jets by up to a factor of three. It also provides more precise position and error estimates of the clusters in both the transverse and longitudinal impact parameter resolution.

Abstract: A search for scalar particles decaying via narrow resonances into two photons in the mass range 65-600 GeV is performed using 20.3 fb(-1) of root s = 8 TeV pp collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The recently discovered Higgs boson is treated as a background. No significant evidence for an additional signal is observed. The results are presented as limits at the 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a scalar boson times branching ratio into two photons, in a fiducial volume where the reconstruction efficiency is approximately independent of the event topology. The upper limits set extend over a considerably wider mass range than previous searches.

Abstract: Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of TeV. The analysis is performed in the H -> gamma gamma decay channel using 20.3 fb(-1) of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp -> H -> gamma gamma fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 +/- 9.4(stat.) (-aEuro parts per thousand 2.9) (+ 3.2) (syst.) +/- 1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations.

Abstract: This Letter presents the first study of W(+/-)W(+/-)jj, same-electric-charge diboson production in association with two jets, using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events with two reconstructed same-charge leptons (e(+/-)e(+/-), e(+/-)mu(+/-), and mu(+/-)mu(+/-)) and two or more jets are analyzed. Production cross sections are measured in two fiducial regions, with different sensitivities to the electroweak and strong production mechanisms. First evidence for W(+/-)W(+/-)jj production and electroweak-only W(+/-)W(+/-)jj production is observed with a significance of 4.5 and 3.6 standard deviations, respectively. The measured production cross sections are in agreement with standard model predictions. Limits at 95% confidence level are set on anomalous quartic gauge couplings.

Abstract: Measurements of two-particle correlation functions and the first five azimuthal harmonics, v(1) to v(5), are presented, using 28 nb(-1) of p + Pb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Significant long-range “ridgelike” correlations are observed for pairs with small relative azimuthal angle (|Delta phi| < pi/3) and back-to-back pairs (|Delta phi| > 2 pi/3) over the transverse momentum range 0.4 < p(T) < 12 GeV and in different intervals of event activity. The event activity is defined by either the number of reconstructed tracks or the total transverse energy on the Pb-fragmentation side. The azimuthal structure of such long-range correlations is Fourier decomposed to obtain the harmonics v(n) as a function of p(T) and event activity. The extracted v(n) values for n = 2 to 5 decrease with n. The v(2) and v(3) values are found to be positive in the measured p(T) range. The v(1) is also measured as a function of p(T) and is observed to change sign around p(T) approximate to 1.5-2.0 GeV and then increase to about 0.1 for pT > 4 GeV. The v(2)(p(T)), v(3)(p(T)), and v(4)(p(T)) are compared to the v(n) coefficients in Pb + Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV with similar event multiplicities. Reasonable agreement is observed after accounting for the difference in the average p(T) of particles produced in the two collision systems.