Abstract: A search is conducted for non-resonant new phenomena in dielectron and dimuon final states, originating from either contact interactions or large extra spatial dimensions. The LHC 2012 proton-proton collision dataset recorded by the ATLAS detector is used, corresponding to 20 fb(-1) at root s = 8 TeV. The dilepton invariant mass spectrum is a discriminating variable in both searches, with the contact interaction search additionally utilizing the dilepton forward-backward asymmetry. No significant deviations from the Standard Model expectation are observed. Lower limits are set on the llqq contact interaction scale Lambda between 15.4 TeVand 26.3 TeV, at the 95% credibility level. For large extra spatial dimensions, lower limits are set on the string scale MS between 3.2 TeV to 5.0 TeV.

Abstract: A measurement of the total pp cross section at the LHC at root s = 7 TeV is presented. In a special run with high-beta* beam optics, an integrated luminosity of 80 μb(-1) was accumulated in order to measure the differential elastic cross section as a function of the Mandelstam momentum transfer variable t. The measurement is performed with the ALFA sub-detector of ATLAS. Using a fit to the differential elastic cross section in the vertical bar t vertical bar range from 0.01 GeV2 to 0.1 GeV2 to extrapolate to vertical bar t vertical bar --> 0, the total cross section, sigma(tot)(pp --> X), is measured via the optical theorem to be: sigma(tot)(pp --> X) = 95.35 +/- 0.38 (stat.) +/- 1.25 (exp.) +/- 0.37 (extr.) mb, where the first error is statistical, the second accounts for all experimental systematic uncertainties and the last is related to uncertainties in the extrapolation to vertical bar t vertical bar --> 0. In addition, the slope of the elastic cross section at small vertical bar t vertical bar is determined to be B = 19.73 +/- 0.14 (stat.) +/- 0.26 (syst.) GeV-2.

Abstract: We present up-to-date cosmological bounds on the sum of active neutrino masses as well as on extended cosmological scenarios with additional thermal relics, as thermal axions or sterile neutrino species. Our analyses consider all the current available cosmological data in the beginning of year 2014, including the very recent and most precise baryon acoustic oscillation measurements from the Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey. In the minimal three-active-neutrino scenario, we find Sigma m(nu) < 0.22 eV at 95% C.L. from the combination of cosmic microwave background (CMB), baryon acoustic oscillation, and Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the Hubble constant. A nonzero value for the sum of the three active neutrino masses of similar to 0.3 eV is significantly favored at more than three standard deviations when adding the constraints on s 8 and Om from the Planck cluster catalog on galaxy number counts. This preference for nonzero thermal relic masses disappears almost completely in both the thermal axion and massive sterile neutrino schemes. Extra light species contribute to the effective number of relativistic degrees of freedom, parametrized via N-eff. We found that when the recent detection of B mode polarization from the BICEP2 experiment is considered, an analysis of the combined CMB data in the framework of LCDM + r models gives N-eff = 3.90 +/- 0.42, suggesting the presence of an extra relativistic relic at more than 95% C.L. from CMB-only data.

Abstract: It is shown that the gray-body factor for a one-dimensional elongated Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) acoustic black hole with one horizon does not vanish in the low-frequency (omega -> 0) limit. This implies that the analog Hawking radiation is dominated by the emission of an infinite number (1/omega) of soft phonons in contrast with the case of a Schwarzschild black hole where the gray-body factor vanishes as omega -> 0 and the spectrum is not dominated by low-energy particles. The infrared behaviors of certain correlation functions are also discussed.

Abstract: Additional jet activity in dijet events is measured using pp collisions at ATLAS at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, for jets reconstructed using the anti-k(t) algorithm with radius parameter R = 0.6. This is done using variables such as the fraction of dijet events without an additional jet in the rapidity interval bounded by the dijet subsystem and correlations between the azimuthal angles of the dijets. They are presented, both with and without a veto on additional jet activity in the rapidity interval, as a function of the scalar average of the transverse momenta of the dijets and of the rapidity interval size. The double differential dijet cross section is also measured as a function of the interval size and the azimuthal angle between the dijets. These variables probe differences in the approach to resummation of large logarithms when performing QCD calculations. The data are compared to POWHEG, interfaced to the PYTHIA 8 and HERWIG parton shower generators, as well as to HEJ with and without interfacing it to the ARIADNE parton shower generator. None of the theoretical predictions agree with the data across the full phase-space considered; however, POWHEG+PYTHIA8 and HEJ+ARIADNE are found to provide the best agreement with the data. These measurements use the full data sample collected with the ATLAS detector in 7 TeV pp collisions at the LHC and correspond to integrated luminosities of 36.1 pb(-1) and 4.5 fb(-1) for data collected during 2010 and 2011, respectively.