Measurement of exclusive<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>γ</mml:mi><mml:mi>γ</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">→</mml:mo><mml:msup><mml:mi>W</mml:mi><mml:mo>+</mml:mo></mml:msup><mml:msup><mml:mi>W</mml:mi><mml:mo>−</mml:mo></mml:msup></mml:math>production and search for exclusive Higgs boson production in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>p</mml:mi><mml:mi>p</mml:mi></mml:math>collisions at<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:msqrt><mml:mi>s</mml:mi></mml:msqrt><mml:mo>=</mml:mo><mml:mn>8</mml:mn><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mtext> </mml:mtext><mml:mi>TeV</mml:mi></mml:math>using the ATLAS detector

Searches for exclusively produced $W$ boson pairs in the process $pp(\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma})\ensuremath{\rightarrow}p{W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}p$ and an exclusively produced Higgs boson in the process $pp(gg)\ensuremath{\rightarrow}pHp$ have been performed using ${e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{\mp}}$ final states. These measurements use $20.2\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of $pp$ collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=8\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ at the LHC. Exclusive production of ${W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ consistent with the Standard Model prediction is found with $3.0\ensuremath{\sigma}$ significance. The exclusive ${W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ production cross section is determined to be $\ensuremath{\sigma}(\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{W}^{+}{W}^{\ensuremath{-}}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}}{\ensuremath{\mu}}^{\ensuremath{\mp}}X)=6.9\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2.2(\mathrm{stat})\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}1.4(\mathrm{sys})\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{fb}$, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. Limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings are set at 95% confidence level as $\ensuremath{-}1.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}<{a}_{0}^{W}/{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}}^{2}<1.7\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$ and $\ensuremath{-}6.4\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}<{a}_{C}^{W}/{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Lambda}}}^{2}<6.3\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}6}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{GeV}}^{\ensuremath{-}2}$. A 95% confidence-level upper limit on the total production cross section for an exclusive Higgs boson is set to 1.2 pb.

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