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: This Letter presents a search for contact interactions in the dielectron and dimuon channels using data from proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC at,root s = 7 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector. The data sample, collected in 2011, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.08 and 1.21 fb(-1) in the e(+)e(-) and mu(+)mu(-) channels, respectively. No significant deviations from the standard model are observed. Using a Bayesian approach with a prior flat in 1/A(2), the following 95% CL lower limits are placed on the energy scale of llqq contact interactions: A(-) > 10.1 TeV (A(+) > 9.4 TeV) in the electron channel and A(-) > 8.0 TeV (A(+) > 7.0 TeV) in the muon channel for constructive (destructive) interference in the left-left isoscalar contact interaction model. Limits are also provided for a prior flat in 1/A(4).

Abstract: An inclusive search for anomalous production of two prompt, isolated muons with the same electric charge is presented. The search is performed in a data sample corresponding to 1.6 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected in 2011 at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Muon pairs are selected by requiring two isolated muons of the same electric charge with p(T) > 20 GeV and vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2.5. Minimal requirements are placed on the rest of the event activity. The distribution of the invariant mass of the muon pair m(mu mu) is found to agree well with the background expectation. Upper limits on the cross section for anomalous production of two muons with the same electric charge are placed as a function of m(mu mu) within a fiducial region defined by the event selection. The fiducial cross-section limit constrains the like-sign top-quark pair-production cross section to be below 3.7 pb at 95% confidence level. The data are also analyzed to search for a narrow like-sign dimuon resonance as predicted for e. g. doubly charged Higgs bosons (H-+/-+/-). Assuming pair production of H-+/-+/- bosons and a branching ratio to muons of 100% (33%), this analysis excludes masses below 355 (244) GeV and 251 (209) GeV for H-+/-+/- bosons coupling to left-handed and right-handed fermions, respectively.