Abstract: This Letter presents evidence for the associated production of a W boson and a top quark using 2.05 fb(-1) of pp collision data at root s = 7 TeV accumulated with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The analysis is based on the selection of the dileptonic final states with events featuring two isolated leptons, electron or muon, with significant transverse missing momentum and at least one jet. An approach based on boosted decision trees has been developed to improve the discrimination of single top-quark Wt events from background. A template fit to the final classifier distributions is performed to determine the cross-section. The result is incompatible with the background-only hypothesis at the 3.3 sigma level, the expected sensitivity assuming the Standard Model production rate being 3.4 sigma. The corresponding cross-section is determined and found to be sigma(wt) = 16.8 +/- 2.9 (stat) +/- 4.9 (syst) pb, in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation. From this result the CKM matrix element vertical bar V-tb vertical bar = 1.03(-0.19)(+0.16) is derived assuming that the Wt production through vertical bar V-ts vertical bar and vertical bar V-td vertical bar is small. (C) 2012 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.

Abstract: A search for a heavy Standard Model Higgs boson decaying via H -> ZZ -> l(+)l(-)q (q) over bar, where l = e or mu, is presented. The search uses a data set of pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) collected in 2011 by the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC. No significant excess of events above the estimated background is found. Upper limits at 95% confidence level on the production cross section of a Higgs boson with a mass in the range between 200 and 600 GeV are derived. A Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass in the range 300 GeV <= m(H) 322 <= GeV or 353 GeV <= m(H) <= 410 GeV is excluded at 95% CL The corresponding expected exclusion range is 351 GeV <= m(H) <= 404 GeV at 95% CL.

Abstract: A search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the H -> WW(*()) -> lvlv (l = e.mu) decay mode is presented. The search is performed using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV collected during 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess of events over the expected background is observed. An upper bound is placed on the Higgs boson production cross section as a function of its mass. A Standard Model Higgs boson with mass in the range between 133 GeV and 261 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, while the expected exclusion range is from 127 GeV to 233 GeV. (C) 2012 CERN. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Abstract: Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of lead-lead collisions at root S-NN = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 7 μb(-1), ATLAS has measured jets with a calorimeter system over the pseudorapidity interval vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.1 and over the transverse momentum range 38 < pT <210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the anti-k(t) algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of the jet yield is characterized by the jet “central-to-peripheral ratio,” R-CP. Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. R-CP varies smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.

Abstract: The response of pions and protons in the energy range of 20-180 GeV, produced at CERN's SPS H8 test-beam line in the ATLAS iron-scintillator Tile hadron calorimeter, has been measured. The test-beam configuration allowed the measurement of the longitudinal shower development for pions and protons up to 20 nuclear interaction lengths. It was found that pions penetrate deeper in the calorimeter than protons. However, protons induce showers that are wider laterally to the direction of the impinging particle. Including the measured total energy response, the pion-to-proton energy ratio and the resolution, all observations are consistent with a higher electromagnetic energy fraction in pion-induced showers. The data are compared with GEANT4 simulations using several hadronic physics lists. The measured longitudinal shower profiles are described by an analytical shower parametrization within an accuracy of 5-10%. The amount of energy leaking out behind the calorimeter is determined and parametrized as a function of the beam energy and the calorimeter depth. This allows for a leakage correction of test-beam results in the standard projective geometry.