Abstract: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is about to enter its third run at unprecedented energies. The experiments at the LHC face computational challenges with enormous data volumes that need to be analysed by thousands of physics users. The ATLAS EventIndex project, currently running in production, builds a complete catalogue of particle collisions, or events, for the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The distributed nature of the experiment data model is exploited by running jobs at over one hundred Grid data centers worldwide. Millions of files with petabytes of data are indexed, extracting a small quantity of metadata per event, that is conveyed with a data collection system in real time to a central Hadoop instance at CERN. After a successful first implementation based on a messaging system, some issues suggested performance bottlenecks for the challenging higher rates in next runs of the experiment. In this work we characterize the weaknesses of the previous messaging system, regarding complexity, scalability, performance and resource consumption. A new approach based on an object-based storage method was designed and implemented, taking into account the lessons learned and leveraging the ATLAS experience with this kind of systems. We present the experiment that we run during three months in the real production scenario worldwide, in order to evaluate the messaging and object store approaches. The results of the experiment show that the new object-based storage method can efficiently support large-scale data collection for big data environments like the next runs of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC.

Abstract: We present studies of W and Z bosons with associated high energy photons produced in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. The analysis uses 35 pb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2010. The event selection requires W and Z bosons decaying into high pT leptons (electrons or muons) and a photon with E(T) > 15 GeV separated from the lepton(s) by a distance Delta R(l, gamma) > 0.7 in eta-phi space. A total of 95 (97) pp -> e(+/-)nu gamma + X (pp -> mu(+/-)nu gamma + X) and 25 (23) pp -> e(+)e(-)gamma + X (pp -> mu(+)mu(-)gamma + X) event candidates are selected. The kinematic distributions of the leptons and photons and the production cross sections are measured. The data are found to agree with Standard Model predictions that include next-to-leading-order O(alpha alpha(s)) contributions.

Abstract: A search is preseritecl for same-sign top-quark production and down-type heavy quarks of charge -1/3 in events with two isolated leptons (c or mu) that have the same electric charge, at least two jets and large missing transverse momentum. The data are selected from pp collisions at root s = 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.04 fb(-1). The observed data are consistent with expectations from Standard Model processes. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the cross section of new sources of same-sign top-quark pair production of 1.4-2.0 pb depending on the assumed mediator mass. Upper limits are also set on the pair-production cross-section for new heavy down-type quarks; a lower limit of 450 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of heavy down-type quarks under the assumption that they decay 100% of the time to Wt.

Abstract: Results are presented of a search for any particle(s) decaying to six or more jets in association with missing transverse momentum. The search is performed using 1.34 fb^-1 of sqrt(s)=7 TeV proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector during 2011. Data-driven techniques are used to determine the backgrounds in kinematic regions that require at least six, seven or eight jets, well beyond the multiplicities required in previous analyses. No evidence is found for physics beyond the Standard Model. The results are interpreted in the context of a supersymmetry model (MSUGRA/CMSSM) where they extend previous constraints.

Abstract: Recent studies have highlighted the potential of jet substructure techniques to identify the hadronic decays of boosted heavy particles. These studies all rely upon the assumption that the internal substructure of jets generated by QCD radiation is well understood. In this article, this assumption is tested on an inclusive sample of jets recorded with the ATLAS detector in 2010, which corresponds to 35 pb(-1) of pp collisions delivered by the LHC at root s = 7 TeV. In a subsample of events with single pp collisions, measurements corrected for detector efficiency and resolution are presented with full systematic uncertainties. Jet invariant mass, k(t) splitting scales and N-subjettiness variables are presented for anti-k(t) R = 1.0 jets and Cambridge-Aachen R = 1.2 jets. Jet invariant-mass spectra for Cambridge-Aachen R = 1.2 jets after a splitting and filtering procedure are also presented. Leading-order parton-shower Monte Carlo predictions for these variables are found to be broadly in agreement with data. The dependence of mean jet mass on additional pp interactions is also explored.