We report a study of final states containing a W boson and hadronic jets, produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN LHC and comprise the full 2010 data sample of 36 pb^-1. Cross sections are determined using both the electron and muon decay modes of the W boson and are presented as a function of inclusive jet multiplicity, N_jet, for up to five jets. At each multiplicity, cross sections are presented as a function of jet transverse momentum, the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of the charged lepton, missing transverse momentum, and all jets, the invariant mass spectra of jets, and the rapidity distributions of various combinations of leptons and final-state jets. The results, corrected for all detector effects and for all backgrounds such as diboson and top quark pair production, are compared with particle-level predictions from perturbative QCD. Leading-order multiparton event generators, normalized to the NNLO total cross section for inclusive W-boson production, describe the data reasonably well for all measured inclusive jet multiplicities. Next-to-leading-order calculations from MCFM, studied here for N_jet >= 2, and BlackHat-Sherpa, studied here for N_jet >= 4, are found to be mostly in good agreement with the data.

Differential measurements of charged particle azimuthal anisotropy are presented for lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s_NN) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, based on an integrated luminosity of approximately 8 mb^-1. This anisotropy is characterized via a Fourier expansion of the distribution of charged particles in azimuthal angle (phi), 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<pT<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 pT dependencies are found to follow an approximate scaling relation, v_n^{1/n}(pT) \propto v_2^{1/2}(pT). A Fourier analysis of the charged particle pair distribution in relative azimuthal angle (Dphi=phi_a-phi_b) is performed to extract the coefficients v_{n,n}=<cos (n Dphi)>. For pairs of charged particles with a large pseudorapidity gap (|Deta=eta_a-eta_b|>2) and one particle with pT<3 GeV, the v_{2,2}-v_{6,6} values are found to factorize as v_{n,n}(pT^a,pT^b) ~ v_n(pT^a)v_n(pT^b) in central and mid-central events. Such factorization suggests that these values of v_{2,2}-v_{6,6} are primarily due 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}(pT^a,pT^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 is observed to cross zero at pT\sim1.0 GeV, reaches a maximum at 4-5 GeV with a value comparable to that for v_3, and decreases at higher pT.

The ratio of production cross sections of the W and Z bosons with exactly one associated jet is presented as a function of jet transverse momentum threshold. The measurement has been designed to maximise cancellation of experimental and theoretical uncertainties, and is reported both within a particle-level kinematic range corresponding to the detector acceptance and as a total cross-section ratio. Results are obtained with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 33 pb^-1. The results are compared with perturbative leading-order, leading-log, and next-to-leading-order QCD predictions, and are found to agree within experimental and theoretical uncertainties. The ratio is measured for events with a single jet with p_T > 30 GeV to be 8.73 +/- 0.30 (stat) +/- 0.40 (syst) in the electron channel, and $ 8.49 +/- 0.23 (stat) +/- 0.33 (syst) in the muon channel.

The inclusive J/psi production cross-section and fraction of J/psi mesons produced in B-hadron decays are measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, as a function of the transverse momentum and rapidity of the J/psi, using 2.3 pb-1 of integrated luminosity. The cross-section is measured from a minimum pT of 1 GeV to a maximum of 70 GeV and for rapidities within |y| < 2.4 giving the widest reach of any measurement of J/psi production to date. The differential production cross-sections of prompt and non-prompt J/psi are separately determined and are compared to Colour Singlet NNLO*, Colour Evaporation Model, and FONLL predictions.

Using the ATLAS detector, observations have been made of a centrality-dependent dijet asymmetry in the collisions of lead ions at the Large Hadron Collider. In a sample of lead-lead events with a per-nucleon center of mass energy of 2.76 TeV, selected with a minimum bias trigger, jets are reconstructed in fine-grained, longitudinally-segmented electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters. The underlying event is measured and subtracted event-by-event, giving estimates of jet transverse energy above the ambient background. The transverse energies of dijets in opposite hemispheres is observed to become systematically more unbalanced with increasing event centrality leading to a large number of events which contain highly asymmetric dijets. This is the first observation of an enhancement of events with such large dijet asymmetries, not observed in proton-proton collisions, and which may point to an interpretation in terms of strong jet energy loss in a hot, dense medium.

This Letter reports on a first measurement of the inclusive W+jets cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC, with the ATLAS detector. Cross sections, in both the electron and muon decay modes of the W boson, are presented as a function of jet multiplicity and of the transverse momentum of the leading and next-to-leading jets in the event. Measurements are also presented of the ratio of cross sections sigma(W+ \ge n) / sigma(W+ \ge n-1) for inclusive jet multiplicities n=1-4. The results, based on an integrated luminosity of 1.3 pb-1, have been corrected for all known detector effects and are quoted in a limited and well-defined range of jet and lepton kinematics. The measured cross sections are compared to particle-level predictions based on perturbative QCD. Next-to-leading order calculations, studied here for n \le 2, are found in good agreement with the data. Leading-order multiparton event generators, normalized to the NNLO total cross section, describe the data well for all measured jet multiplicities.

We present first measurements of charged and neutral particle-flow correlations in pp collisions using the ATLAS calorimeters. Data were collected in 2009 and 2010 at centre-of-mass energies of 900 GeV and 7 TeV. Events were selected using a minimum-bias trigger which required a charged particle in scintillation counters on either side of the interaction point. Particle flows, sensitive to the underlying event, are measured using clusters of energy in the ATLAS calorimeters, taking advantage of their fine granularity. No Monte Carlo generator used in this analysis can accurately describe the measurements. The results are independent of those based on charged particles measured by the ATLAS tracking systems and can be used to constrain the parameters of Monte Carlo generators.

A search for new heavy particles manifested as resonances in two-jet final states is presented. The data were produced in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 315 nb^-1 collected by the ATLAS detector. No resonances were observed. Upper limits were set on the product of cross section and signal acceptance for excited-quark (q*) production as a function of q* mass. These exclude at the 95% CL the q* mass interval 0.30 < mq* < 1.26 TeV, extending the reach of previous experiments.

First measurements of the W -> lnu and Z/gamma* -> ll (l = e, mu) production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The results are based on 2250 W -> lnu and 179 Z/gamma* -> ll candidate events selected from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 320 nb-1. The measured total W and Z/gamma*-boson production cross sections times the respective leptonic branching ratios for the combined electron and muon channels are $\stotW$ * BR(W -> lnu) = 9.96 +- 0.23(stat) +- 0.50(syst) +- 1.10(lumi) nb and $\stotZg$ * BR(Z/gamma* -> ll) = 0.82 +- 0.06(stat) +- 0.05(syst) +- 0.09(lumi) nb (within the invariant mass window 66 < m_ll < 116 GeV). The W/Z cross-section ratio is measured to be 11.7 +- 0.9(stat) +- 0.4(syst). In addition, measurements of the W+ and W- production cross sections and of the lepton charge asymmetry are reported. Theoretical predictions based on NNLO QCD calculations are found to agree with the measurements.

Dijet angular distributions from the first LHC pp collisions at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 7 TeV have been measured with the ATLAS detector. The dataset used for this analysis represents an integrated luminosity of 3.1 pb-1. Dijet $\chi$ distributions and centrality ratios have been measured up to dijet masses of 2.8 TeV, and found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. Analysis of the $\chi$ distributions excludes quark contact interactions with a compositeness scale $\Lambda$ below 3.4 TeV, at 95% confidence level, significantly exceeding previous limits.