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A search is presented for direct top-squark pair production in final states with two leptons (electrons or muons) of opposite charge using 20.3fb-1 of pp collision data at sqrt(s)=8TeV, 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.

A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three leptons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 20.3 fb-1 of sqrt(s) = 8 TeV proton--proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with the Standard Model expectations and limits are set in R-parity-conserving phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Models and in simplified supersymmetric models, significantly extending previous results. For simplified supersymmetric models of direct chargino ($\\tilde\\chi^\\pm_1$) and next-to-lightest neutralino ($\\tilde{\\chi}_2^0$) production with decays to lightest neutralino ($\\tilde{\\chi}_1^0$) via either all three generations of sleptons, staus only, gauge bosons, or Higgs bosons, $\\tilde\\chi^\\pm_1$ and $\\tilde{\\chi}_2^0$ masses are excluded up to 700 GeV, 380 GeV, 345 GeV, or 148 GeV respectively, for a massless $\\tilde{\\chi}_1^0$.

The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section has been measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV and sqrt(s)=8 TeV with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, using ttbar events with an opposite-charge e-mu pair in the final state. The measurement was performed with the 2011 7 TeV dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1 and the 2012 8 TeV dataset of 20.3 fb-1. The numbers of events with exactly one and exactly two b-tagged jets were counted and used to simultaneously determine sigma(ttbar) and the efficiency to reconstruct and b-tag a b-jet from a top quark decay, thereby minimising the associated systematic uncertainties. The cross-section was measured to be: sigma(ttbar)=$182.9\\pm3.1\\pm4.2\\pm3.6\\pm3.3$ pb (7 TeV) and sigma(ttbar)=$242.4\\pm1.7\\pm5.5\\pm7.5\\pm4.2$ pb (8 TeV), where the four uncertainties arise from data statistics, experimental and theoretical systematic effects, the knowledge of the integrated luminosity and of the LHC beam energy. The results are consistent with recent theoretical QCD calculations at NNLO. Fiducial measurements corresponding to the experimental acceptance of the leptons are also reported, together with the ratio of cross-sections measured at the two centre-of-mass energies. The inclusive cross-section results were used to determine the top quark pole mass via the dependence of the theoretically-predicted cross-section on $m_t^{pole}$, giving a result of $m_t^{pole}=172.9^{+2.5}_{-2.6}$ GeV. By looking for an excess of ttbar production with respect to the QCD prediction, the results were also used to place limits on the pair-production of supersymmetric top squarks with masses close to the top quark mass decaying to predominantly right-handed top quarks and a light neutralino, the lightest supersymmetric particle. Top squarks with masses between the top quark mass and 177 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.

A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. In a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1 collected in 2011, events are selected that are consistent either with two Z bosons decaying to electrons or muons or with one Z boson decaying to electrons or muons and a second Z boson decaying to neutrinos. The ZZ*->llll and ZZ->llnunu cross sections are measured in restricted phase-space regions. These results are then used to derive the total cross section for ZZ events produced with both Z bosons in the mass range 66 to 116 GeV, sigmaZZtot = 6.7 +-0.7 +0.4-0.3 +-0.3 pb, which is consistent with the Standard Model prediction of 5.89+0.22-0.18 pb calculated at next-to-leading order in QCD. The normalized differential cross sections in bins of various kinematic variables are presented. Finally, the differential event yield as a function of the transverse momentum of the leading Z boson is used to set limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings in ZZ production.

In several extensions of the Standard Model, the top quark can decay into a bottom quark and a light charged Higgs boson H+, t to bH+, in addition to the Standard Model decay t to bW. Since W bosons decay to the three lepton generations equally, while H+ may predominantly decay into tau+nu, charged Higgs bosons can be searched for using the violation of lepton universality in top quark decays. The analysis in this paper is based on 4.6/fb of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. Signatures containing leptons (e or mu) and/or a hadronically decaying tau (tau_had) are used. Event yield ratios between e+tau_had and e+mu, as well as between mu+tau_had and mu+e, final states are measured in the data and compared to predictions from simulations. This ratio-based method reduces the impact of systematic uncertainties in the analysis. No significant deviation from the Standard Model predictions is observed. With the assumption that the branching fraction B(H+ to tau+nu) is 100%, upper limits in the range 3.2%-4.4% can be placed on the branching fraction B(t to bH+) for charged Higgs boson masses m(H+) in the range 90-140 GeV. After combination with results from a search for charged Higgs bosons in ttbar decays using the tau_had+jets final state, upper limits on B(t to bH+) can be set in the range 0.8%-3.4%, for m(H+) in the range 90-160 GeV.

A measurement of the top quark pair production cross section in the final state with a hadronically decaying tau lepton and jets is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC, with a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.67 inverse femtobarns. The cross section is measured to be 194 +/- 18 (stat.) +/- 46 (syst.) pb and is in agreement with other measurements and with the Standard Model prediction.

A measurement of splitting scales, as defined by the kT clustering algorithm, is presented for final states containing a W boson produced in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The measurement is based on the full 2010 data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-1 which was collected using the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Cluster splitting scales are measured in events containing W bosons decaying to electrons or muons. The measurement comprises the four hardest splitting scales in a kT cluster sequence of the hadronic activity accompanying the W boson, and ratios of these splitting scales. Backgrounds such as multi-jet and top-quark-pair production are subtracted and the results are corrected for detector effects. Predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators at particle level are compared to the data. Overall, reasonable agreement is found with all generators, but larger deviations between the predictions and the data are evident in the soft regions of the splitting scales.

Results are presented of a search for new particles decaying to large numbers of jets in association with missing transverse momentum, using 4.7 fb^-1 of pp collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011. The event selection requires missing transverse momentum, no isolated electrons or muons, and from >=6 to >=9 jets. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a MSUGRA/CMSSM supersymmetric model, where, for large universal scalar mass m_0, gluino masses smaller than 840 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, extending previously published limits. Within a simplified model containing only a gluino octet and a neutralino, gluino masses smaller than 870 GeV are similarly excluded for neutralino masses below 100 GeV.

The results of a search for charged Higgs bosons are presented. The analysis is based on 4.6/fb of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, using top quark pair events with a tau lepton in the final state. The data are consistent with the expected background from Standard Model processes. Assuming that the branching ratio of the charged Higgs boson to a tau lepton and a neutrino is 100%, this leads to upper limits on the branching ratio of top quark decays to a b quark and a charged Higgs boson between 5% and 1% for charged Higgs boson masses ranging from 90 GeV to 160 GeV, respectively. In the context of the mh-max scenario of the MSSM, tan(beta) above 12-26, as well as between 1 and 2-6, can be excluded for charged Higgs boson masses between 90 GeV and 150 GeV.