Abstract: A search for the decay of a light Higgs boson (120-140 GeV) to a pair of weakly interacting, long-lived particles in 1.94 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at root s = 7 TeV recorded in 2011 by the ATLAS detector is presented. The search strategy requires that both long-lived particles decay inside the muon spectrometer. No excess of events is observed above the expected background and limits on the Higgs boson production times branching ratio to weakly interacting, long-lived particles are derived as a function of the particle proper decay length.

Abstract: Differential measurements of charged particle azimuthal anisotropy are presented for lead-lead collisions at root sNN = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, based on an integrated luminosity of approximately 8 μb(-1). This anisotropy is characterized via a Fourier expansion of the distribution of charged particles in azimuthal angle relative to the reaction plane, with the coefficients v(n) denoting the magnitude of the anisotropy. Significant v(2)-v(6) values are obtained as a function of transverse momentum (0.5 < p(T) < 20 GeV), pseudorapidity (|eta| < 2.5), and centrality using an event plane method. The v(n) values for n >= 3 are found to vary weakly with both eta and centrality, and their p(T) dependencies are found to follow an approximate scaling relation, v(n)(1/n)(p(T)) proportional to v(2)(1/2)(p(T)), except in the top 5% most central collisions. A Fourier analysis of the charged particle pair distribution in relative azimuthal angle (Delta phi = phi(a)-phi(b)) is performed to extract the coefficients v(n,n) = < cos n Delta phi >. For pairs of charged particles with a large pseudorapidity gap (|Delta eta = eta(a) – eta(b)| > 2) and one particle with p(T) < 3 GeV, the v(2,2)-v(6,6) values are found to factorize as v(n,n)(p(T)(a), p(T)(b)) approximate to v(n) (p(T)(a))v(n)(p(T)(b)) in central and midcentral events. Such factorization suggests that these values of v(2,2)-v(6,6) are primarily attributable to the response of the created matter to the fluctuations in the geometry of the initial state. A detailed study shows that the v(1,1)(p(T)(a), p(T)(b)) data are consistent with the combined contributions from a rapidity-even v(1) and global momentum conservation. A two-component fit is used to extract the v(1) contribution. The extracted v(1) isobserved to cross zero at pT approximate to 1.0 GeV, reaches a maximum at 4-5 GeV with a value comparable to that for v(3), and decreases at higher p(T).

Abstract: A measurement of the cross section for the production of an isolated photon in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy root s = 7 TeV is presented. Photons are reconstructed in the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta(gamma)vertical bar < 1.37 and with a transverse energy E-T(gamma) > 25 GeV. Jets are reconstructed in the rapidity range vertical bar y(jet)vertical bar < 4.4 and with a transverse momentum p(T)(jet) > 20 GeV. The differential cross section d sigma/dE(T)(gamma) is measured, as a function of the photon transverse energy, for three different rapidity ranges of the leading-p(T) jet: vertical bar y(jet)vertical bar < 1.2, 1.2 <= vertical bar y(jet)vertical bar < 2.8 and 2.8 <= vertical bar y(jet)vertical bar < 4.4. For each rapidity configuration the same-sign (eta(gamma)y(jet) >= 0) and opposite-sign (eta(gamma) y(jet) < 0) cases are studied separately. The results are based on an integrated luminosity of 37 pb(-1), collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations are found to be in fair agreement with the data, except for E-T(gamma) <= 45 GeV, where the theoretical predictions overestimate the measured cross sections.