Search for New Phenomena in Photon+Jet Events Collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV with the ATLAS Detector

This note describes a model-independent search for the production of new resonances in photon + jet ($\gamma$+jet) events using 20 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton LHC data recorded with the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV. The $\gamma$+jet mass distribution is compared to a background model fit from data; no significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is found. Limits are set at 95% credibility level on generic Gaussian-shaped signals and two benchmark phenomena beyond the Standard Model: non-thermal quantum black holes and excited quarks. Non-thermal quantum black holes are excluded below masses of 4.6 TeV and excited quarks are excluded below masses of 3.5 TeV.