Abstract: Nearly 50 years ago, theoretical physicists proposed that a field permeates the universe and gives energy to the vacuum. This field was required to explain why some, but not all, fundamental particles have mass. Numerous precision measurements during recent decades have provided indirect support for the existence of this field, but one crucial prediction of this theory has remained unconfirmed despite 30 years of experimental searches: the existence of a massive particle, the standard model Higgs boson. The ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN has now observed the production of a new particle with a mass of 126 giga-electron volts and decay signatures consistent with those expected for the Higgs particle. This result is strong support for the standard model of particle physics, including the presence of this vacuum field. The existence and properties of the newly discovered particle may also have consequences beyond the standard model itself.

Abstract: Using data recorded in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider, a search for evidence of extra spatial dimensions has been performed through an analysis of the diphoton final state. The analysis uses data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.12 fb(-1) of root s = 7 TeV proton-proton collisions. The diphoton invariant mass (m(gamma gamma)) spectrum is observed to be in good agreement with the expected Standard Model background. In the large extra dimension scenario of Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali, the results provide 95% CL lower limits on the fundamental Planck scale between 2.27 and 3.53 TeV, depending on the number of extra dimensions and the theoretical formalism used. The results also set 95% CL lower limits on the lightest Randall-Sundrum graviton mass of between 0.79 and 1.85 TeV, for values of the dimensionless coupling k/(M) over bar (Pl) varying from 0.01 to 0.1. Combining with previously published ATLAS results from the dielectron and dimuon final states, the 95% CL lower limit on the Randall-Sundrum graviton mass for k/(M) over bar (Pl) = 0.01 (0.1) is 0.80 (1.95) TeV.

Abstract: A combined search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC using datasets corresponding to integrated luminosities from 1.04 fb(-1) to 4.9 fb(-1) of pp collisions collected at root s = 7 TeV is presented. The Higgs boson mass ranges 112.9-115.5 GeV, 131-238 GeV and 251-466 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level (CL), while the range 124-519 GeV is expected to be excluded in the absence of a signal. An excess of events is observed around m(H) similar to 126 GeV with a local significance of 3.5 standard deviations (sigma). The local significances of H -> gamma, H -> ZZ(()*()) -> l(+)l(-)l'(+)l'(-) and H -> WW(*()) l(+)nu l'(-)(nu) over bar, the three most sensitive channels in this mass range, are 2.8 sigma, 2.1 sigma and 1.4 sigma. respectively. The global probability for the background to produce such a fluctuation anywhere in the explored Higgs boson mass range 110-600 GeV is estimated to be similar to 1.4% or, equivalently, 2.2 sigma.