Abstract: Measurements of fiducial cross sections for the electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z-boson are presented. The measurements are performed using 20.3 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of = 8 TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The electroweak component is extracted by a fit to the dijet invariant mass distribution in a fiducial region chosen to enhance the electroweak contribution over the dominant background in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction. The electroweak cross sections measured in two fiducial regions are in good agreement with the Standard Model expectations and the background-only hypothesis is rejected with significance above the 5 sigma level. The electroweak process includes the vector boson fusion production of a Z-boson and the data are used to place limits on anomalous triple gauge boson couplings. In addition, measurements of cross sections and differential distributions for inclusive Z-boson-plus-dijet production are performed in five fiducial regions, each with different sensitivity to the electroweak contribution. The results are corrected for detector effects and compared to predictions from the Sherpa and Powheg event generators.

Abstract: The production of a W boson in association with a single charm quark is studied using 4.6 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. In events in which a W boson decays to an electron or muon, the charm quark is tagged either by its semileptonic decay to a muon or by the presence of a charmed meson. The integrated and differential cross sections as a function of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay are measured. Results are compared to the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD calculations obtained from various parton distribution function parameterisations. The ratio of the strange-to-down sea-quark distributions is determined to be 0.96(-0.30)(+0.26) at Q (2) = 1.9 GeV2, which supports the hypothesis of an SU(3)-symmetric composition of the light-quark sea. Additionally, the cross-section ratio sigma(W (+) +)/sigma(W (-) + c) is compared to the predictions obtained using parton distribution function parameterisations with different assumptions about the s-(s) over bar quark asymmetry.

Abstract: A search is presented for direct top-squark pair production in final states with two leptons (electrons or muons) of opposite charge using 20.3 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 8 TeV, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012. No excess over the Standard Model expectation is found. The results are interpreted under the separate assumptions (i) that the top squark decays to a b-quark in addition to an on-shell chargino whose decay occurs via a real or virtual W boson, or (ii) that the top squark decays to a t-quark and the lightest neutralino. A top squark with a mass between 150 GeV and 445 GeV decaying to a b-quark and an on-shell chargino is excluded at 95% confidence level for a top squark mass equal to the chargino mass plus 10 GeV, in the case of a 1 GeV lightest neutralino. Top squarks with masses between 215 (90) GeV and 530 (170) GeV decaying to an on-shell (off-shell) t-quark and a neutralino are excluded at 95% confidence level for a 1 GeV neutralino.

Abstract: The differential cross section for the process Z/gamma* -> ll (l = e, mu) as a function of dilepton invariant mass is measured in pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV at the LHC using the ATLAS detector. The measurement is performed in the e and μchannels for invariant masses between 26 GeV and 66 GeV using an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb(-1) collected in 2011 and these measurements are combined. The analysis is extended to invariant masses as low as 12 GeV in the muon channel using 35 pb(-1) of data collected in 2010. The cross sections are determined within fiducial acceptance regions and corrections to extrapolate the measurements to the full kinematic range are provided. Next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions provide a significantly better description of the results than next-to-leading-order QCD calculations, unless the latter are matched to a parton shower calculation.

Abstract: A measurement of event-plane correlations involving two or three event planes of different order is presented as a function of centrality for 7 μb(-1) Pb + Pb collision data at v root s(NN) = 2.76 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Fourteen correlators are measured using a standard event-plane method and a scalar-product method, and the latter method is found to give a systematically larger correlation signal. Several different trends in the centrality dependence of these correlators are observed. These trends are not reproduced by predictions based on the Glauber model, which includes only the correlations from the collision geometry in the initial state. Calculations that include the final-state collective dynamics are able to describe qualitatively, and in some cases also quantitatively, the centrality dependence of the measured correlators. These observations suggest that both the fluctuations in the initial geometry and the nonlinear mixing between different harmonics in the final state are important for creating these correlations in momentum space.