Search for high-mass states with one lepton plus missing transverse momentum in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$~=~8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search is presented for new high-mass states decaying to a lepton (electron or muon) plus missing transverse momentum using 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV recorded with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed. A $W'$ with Sequential Standard Model couplings is excluded at the 95% credibility level for masses up to 3.27 TeV. Excited chiral bosons ($W^{*}$) with equivalent coupling strengths are excluded for masses up to 3.17 TeV. Limits on the mass scale $M_{*}$ of the unknown mediating interaction for dark matter pair production in association with a leptonically decaying $W$ are also set.