Abstract:

The ATLAS detector is used to search for excited leptons in the electromagnetic radiative decay channel *→γ. Results are presented based on the analysis of pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.05fb-1. No evidence for excited leptons is found, and limits are set on the compositeness scale Λ as a function of the excited lepton mass m *. In the special case where Λ=m *, excited electron and muon masses below 1.87 TeV and 1.75 TeV are excluded at 95% C.L., respectively. © 2012 CERN.

Abstract:

The production cross sections of the inclusive Drell-Yan processes W ±→ν and Z/γ∗→(=e, μ) are measured in proton-proton collisions at √s=7TeV with the ATLAS detector. The cross sections are reported integrated over a fiducial kinematic range, extrapolated to the full range, and also evaluated differentially as a function of the W decay lepton pseudorapidity and the Z boson rapidity, respectively. Based on an integrated luminosity of about 35pb-1 collected in 2010, the precision of these measurements reaches a few percent. The integrated and the differential W± and Z/γ∗ cross sections in the e and μ channels are combined, and compared with perturbative QCD calculations, based on a number of different parton distribution sets available at next-to-next-to-leading order.

Abstract:

A search for diphoton events with large missing transverse momentum has been performed using 1.07 fb -1 of proton-proton collision data at s=7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector. No excess of events was observed above the Standard Model prediction and 95% Confidence Level (CL) upper limits are set on the production cross section for new physics. The limits depend on each model parameter space and vary as follows: Λ<(22-129) fb in the context of a generalised model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GGM) with a bino-like lightest neutralino, σ<(27-91) fb in the context of a minimal model of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (SPS8), and σ<(15-27) fb in the context of a specific model with one universal extra dimension (UED). A 95% CL lower limit of 805 GeV, for bino masses above 50 GeV, is set on the GGM gluino mass. Lower limits of 145 TeV and 1.23 TeV are set on the SPS8 breaking scale Λ and on the UED compactification scale 1/R, respectively. These limits provide the most stringent tests of these models to date. © 2012 CERN.

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 2.12fb-1 of s=7TeV proton-proton collisions. The diphoton invariant mass (mγγ) 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/-1 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-1Pl=0.01 (0.1) is 0.80 (1.95) TeV. © 2012 CERN.

Abstract:

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the centrality dependence of charged particle pseudorapidity distributions over |η|<2 in lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of √s NN=2.76 TeV. In order to include particles with transverse momentum as low as 30 MeV, the data were recorded with the central solenoid magnet off. Charged particles were reconstructed with two algorithms (2-point "tracklets" and full tracks) using information from the pixel detector only. The lead-lead collision centrality was characterized by the total transverse energy in the forward calorimeter in the range 3.2<|η|<4.9. Measurements are presented of the per-event charged particle pseudorapidity distribution, dN ch/dη, and the average charged particle multiplicity in the pseudorapidity interval |η|<0.5 in several intervals of collision centrality. The results are compared to previous mid-rapidity measurements at the LHC and RHIC. The variation of the mid-rapidity charged particle yield per colliding nucleon pair with the number of participants is consistent with lower sNN results. The shape of the dN ch/dη distribution is found to be independent of centrality within the systematic uncertainties of the measurement. © 2012 CERN.