Abstract: A search for pair production of up-type vector-like quarks (T) with a significant branching ratio into a top quark and either a Standard Model Higgs boson or a Z boson is presented. The same analysis is also used to search for four-top-quark production in several new physics scenarios. The search is based on a dataset of pp collisions at root s = 13TeV recorded in 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1). Data are analysed in the lepton+jets final state, characterised by an isolated electron or muon with high transverse momentum, large missing transverse momentum and multiple jets, as well as the jets+E-T(miss) final state, characterised by multiple jets and large missing transverse momentum. The search exploits the high multiplicity of jets identified as originating from b-quarks, and the presence of boosted, hadronically decaying top quarks and Higgs bosons reconstructed as large-radius jets, characteristic of signal events. No significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed, and 95% CL upper limits are set on the production cross sections for the different signal processes considered. These cross-section limits are used to derive lower limits on the mass of a vector-like T quark under several branching ratio hypotheses assuming contributions from T -> Wb, Zt, Ht decays. The 95% CL observed lower limits on the T quark mass range between 0.99TeV and 1.43TeV for all possible values of the branching ratios into the three decay modes considered, significantly extending the reach beyond that of previous searches. Additionally, upper limits on anomalous four-top-quark production are set in the context of an effective field theory model, as well as in an universal extra dimensions model.

Abstract: Results of dedicated Monte Carlo simulations of beam-induced background (BIB) in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are presented and compared with data recorded in 2012. During normal physics operation this background arises mainly from scattering of the 4 TeV protons on residual gas in the beam pipe. Methods of reconstructing the BIB signals in the ATLAS detector, developed and implemented in the simulation chain based on the FLUKA Monte Carlo simulation package, are described. The interaction rates are determined from the residual gas pressure distribution in the LHC ring in order to set an absolute scale on the predicted rates of BIB so that they can be compared quantitatively with data. Through these comparisons the origins of the BIB leading to different observables in the ATLAS detectors are analysed. The level of agreement between simulation results and BIB measurements by ATLAS in 2012 demonstrates that a good understanding of the origin of BIB has been reached.

Abstract: Many extensions of the Standard Model predict new resonances decaying to a Z, W, or Higgs boson and a photon. This paper presents a search for such resonances produced in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV using a data set with an integrated luminosity of 36.1 fb(-1) collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The Z/W/H bosons are identified through their decays to hadrons. The data are found to be consistent with the Standard Model expectation in the entire investigated mass range. Upper limits are set on the production cross section times branching fraction for resonance decays to Z.W + gamma in the mass range from 1.0 to 6.8 TeV and for the first time into H + gamma in the mass range from 1.0 to 3.0 TeV.