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: Studies of the spin and parity quantum numbers of the Higgs boson are presented, based on protonproton collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The Standard Model spin-parity J(P) = 0(+) hypothesis is compared with alternative hypotheses using the Higgs boson decays H -> gamma gamma, H -> ZZ* -> 4l and H -> WW* -> l nu l nu, as well as the combination of these channels. The analysed dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.7 fb(-1) collected at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8 TeV. For the H -> ZZ* -> 4l decay mode the dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb(-1) collected at root s = 7 TeV is included. The data are compatible with the Standard Model J(P) = 0+ quantum numbers for the Higgs boson, whereas all alternative hypotheses studied in this Letter, namely some specific J(P) = 0(-), 1(+), 1(-), 2(+) models, are excluded at confidence levels above 97.8%. This exclusion holds independently of the assumptions on the coupling strengths to the Standard Model particles and in the case of the J(P) = 2(+) model, of the relative fractions of gluon-fusion and quark-antiquark production of the spin-2 particle. The data thus provide evidence for the spin-0 nature of the Higgs boson, with positive parity being strongly preferred.

Abstract: Bose-Einstein correlations between identified charged pions are measured for p+Pb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV using data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 28 nb(-1). Pions are identified using ionization energy loss measured in the pixel detector. Two-particle correlation functions and the extracted source radii are presented as a function of collision centrality as well as the average transverse momentum (k(T)) and rapidity (y*(pi pi)) of the pair. Pairs are selected with a rapidity -2 < y*(pi pi) < 1 and with an average transverse momentum 0.1 < k(T) < 0.8 GeV. The effect of jet fragmentation on the two-particle correlation function is studied, and a method using opposite-charge pair data to constrain its contributions to the measured correlations is described. The measured source sizes are substantially larger in more central collisions and are observed to decrease with increasing pair k(T). A correlation of the radii with the local charged-particle density is demonstrated. The scaling of the extracted radii with the mean number of participating nucleons is also used to compare a selection of initial-geometry models. The cross term R-ol is measured as a function of rapidity, and a nonzero value is observed with 5.1 sigma combined significance for -1 < y*pi pi < 1 in the most central events.

Abstract: Detailed measurements of t-channel single top-quark production are presented. They use 20.2 fb(-1) of data collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the LHC. Total, fiducial and differential cross-sections are measured for both top-quark and top-antiquark production. The fiducial cross-section is measured with a precision of 5.8% (top quark) and 7.8% (top antiquark), respectively. The total cross-sections are measured to be stot(tq) = 56.7(-3.8)(+4.3) pb for top-quark production and sigma(tot)((t) over barq) = 32.9(-2.7)(+3.0) pb for top-antiquark production, in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. In addition, the ratio of top-quark to top-antiquark production cross-sections is determined to be R-t = 1.72 +/- 0.09. The differential cross-sections as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of both the top quark and the top antiquark are measured at both the parton and particle levels. The transverse momentum and rapidity differential cross-sections of the accompanying jet from the t-channel scattering are measured at particle level. All measurements are compared to various Monte Carlo predictions as well as to fixed-order QCD calculations where available.

Abstract: Using inelastic proton-proton interactions at root s = 900 GeV and 7 TeV, recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC, measurements have been made of the correlations between forward and backward charged-particle multiplicities and, for the first time, between forward and backward charged-particle summed transverse momentum. In addition, jet-like structure in the events is studied by means of azimuthal distributions of charged particles relative to the charged particle with highest transverse momentum in a, selected kinematic region of the event. The results are compared with predictions from tunes of the PYTHIA and HERWIG++ Monte Carlo generators, which in most cases are found to provide a reasonable description of the data.