Evidence for the production of two $W$ bosons with the same electric charge and two jets in 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8$ TeV using the ATLAS detector

This dissertation presents a measurement of \ssWW production in proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider using the ATLAS detector. The $W$ bosons are required to decay leptonically, giving a signature of two leptons of the same electric charge, two jets, and missing transverse energy. The analysis is performed on the entire 8 TeV dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The cross section is measured in two fiducial regions, and an excess over the background-only prediction is observed with a significance of 4.5$\sigma$ for inclusive \ssWW production and 3.6$\sigma$ for electroweak \ssWW production. The measured cross sections are in agreement with Standard Model predictions, and limits are set on anomalous quartic gauge couplings.