Abstract: The ratio of the cross sections for inclusive isolated-photon production in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 13 and 8 TeV is measured using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The integrated luminosities of the 13 TeV and 8 TeV datasets are 3.2 fb(-1) and 20.2 fb(-1), respectively. The ratio is measured as a function of the photon transverse energy in different regions of the photon pseudorapidity. The predictions from next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations are compared with the measured ratio. The experimental systematic uncertainties as well as the uncertainties affecting the predictions are evaluated taking into account the correlations between the two centre-of-mass energies, resulting in a reduction of up to a factor of 2.5 (5) in the experimental (theoretical) systematic uncertainties. The predictions based on several parameterisations of the proton parton distribution functions agree with the data within the reduced experimental and theoretical uncertainties. In addition, this ratio to that of the fiducial cross sections for Z boson production at 13 and 8 TeV using the decay channels Z e(+)e(-) and Z (+-) is made and compared with the theoretical predictions. In this double ratio, a further reduction of the experimental uncertainty is obtained because the uncertainties arising from the luminosity measurement cancel out. The predictions describe the measurements of the double ratio within the theoretical and experimental uncertainties.

Abstract: A search for flavour-changing neutral current decays of a top quark into an up-type quark (q = u, c) and the Standard Model Higgs boson, t Hq, is presented. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at = 13 TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Two complementary analyses are performed to search for top-quark pair events in which one top quark decays into Wb and the other top quark decays into Hq, and target the Hbb and H (+-) decay modes, respectively. The high multiplicity of b-quark jets, or the presence of hadronically decaying -leptons, is exploited in the two analyses respectively. Multivariate techniques are used to separate the signal from the background, which is dominated by top-quark pair production. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is found, and 95% CL upper limits on the t Hq branching ratios are derived. The combination of these searches with ATLAS searches in diphoton and multilepton final states yields observed (expected) 95% CL upper limits on the t Hc and t Hu branching ratios of 1.1 x 10(-3) (8.3 x 10(-4)) and 1.2 x 10(-3) (8.3 x 10(-4)), respectively. The corresponding combined observed (expected) upper limits on the |(tcH)| and |(tuH)| couplings are 0.064 (0.055) and 0.066 (0.055), respectively.

Abstract: A search for singly produced vector-like quarks Q, where Q can be either a T quark with charge +2/3 or a Y quark with charge -4/3, is performed in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1), recorded with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2015 and 2016. The analysis targets Q -> Wb decays where the W boson decays leptonically. No significant deviation from the expected Standard Model background is observed. Upper limits are set on the QWb coupling strength and the mixing between the Standard Model sector and a singlet T quark or a Y quark from a (B, Y) doublet or a (T, B, Y) triplet, taking into account the interference effects with the Standard Model background. The upper limits set on the mixing angle are as small as vertical bar sin theta(L)vertical bar = 0.18 for a singlet T quark of mass 800 GeV, vertical bar sin theta(R)vertical bar = 0.17 for a Y quark of mass 800 GeV in a (B, Y) doublet model and vertical bar sin theta(L)vertical bar = 0: 16 for a Y quark of mass 800 GeV in a (T, B, Y) triplet model. Within a (B, Y) doublet model, the limits set on the mixing parameter vertical bar sin theta(R)vertical bar are comparable with the exclusion limits from electroweak precision observables in the mass range between about 900 GeV and 1250 GeV.