Abstract: Using a sample of dilepton top-quark pair ((tt) over bar) candidate events, a study is performed of the production of top-quark pairs together with heavy-flavor (HF) quarks, the sum of (tt) over bar + b + X and (tt) over bar + c + X, collectively referred to as (tt) over bar + HF. The data set used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The presence of additional HF (b or c) quarks in the (tt) over bar sample is inferred by looking for events with at least three b-tagged jets, where two are attributed to the b quarks from the (tt) over bar decays and the third to additional HF production. The dominant background to (tt) over bar + HF in this sample is (tt) over bar + jet events in which a light-flavor jet is misidentified as a heavy-flavor jet. To determine the heavy-and light-flavor content of the additional b-tagged jets, a fit to the vertex mass distribution of b-tagged jets in the sample is performed. The result of the fit shows that 79 +/- 14 (stat) +/- 22 (syst) of the 105 selected extra b-tagged jets originate from HF quarks, 3 standard deviations away from the hypothesis of zero (tt) over bar + HF production. The result for extra HF production is quoted as a ratio (R-HF) of the cross section for (tt) over bar + HF production to the cross section for (tt) over bar production with at least one additional jet. Both cross sections are measured in a fiducial kinematic region within the ATLAS acceptance. R-HF is measured to be [6.2 +/- 1.1(stat) +/- 1.8 (syst)]% for jets with p(T) > 25 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5, in agreement with the expectations from Monte Carlo generators.

Abstract: Muons from cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere provide a high-statistics source of particles that can be used to study the performance and calibration of the ATLAS detector. Cosmic-ray muons can penetrate to the cavern and deposit energy in all detector subsystems. Such events have played an important role in the commissioning of the detector since the start of the installation phase in 2005 and were particularly important for understanding the detector performance in the time prior to the arrival of the first LHC beams. Global cosmic-ray runs were undertaken in both 2008 and 2009 and these data have been used through to the early phases of collision data-taking as a tool for calibration, alignment and detector monitoring. These large datasets have also been used for detector performance studies, including investigations that rely on the combined performance of different subsystems. This paper presents the results of performance studies related to combined tracking, lepton identification and the reconstruction of jets and missing transverse energy. Results are compared to expectations based on a cosmic-ray event generator and a full simulation of the detector response.

Abstract: The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of root s = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K-s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5 % for central isolated hadrons and 1-3 % for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.