A search for supersymmetry (SUSY) in events with large missing transverse momentum, jets, and at least one hadronically decaying tau lepton, with zero or one additional light lepton (e/mu), has been performed using 4.7 fb-1 of proton-proton collision data at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. No excess above the Standard Model background expectation is observed and a 95% confidence level visible cross-section upper limit for new phenomena is set. In the framework of gauge-mediated SUSY-breaking models, lower limits on the mass scale Lambda are set at 54 TeV in the regions where the stau is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (tan(beta) > 20). These limits provide the most stringent tests to date of GMSB models in a large part of the parameter space considered.
The ATLAS experiment has observed 1995 Z boson candidates in data corresponding to 0.15 inverse nb of integrated luminosity obtained in the 2011 LHC Pb+Pb run at sqrt(s_NN)=2.76 TeV. The Z bosons are reconstructed via di-electron and di-muon decay channels, with a background contamination of less than 3%. Results from the two channels are consistent and are combined. Within the statistical and systematic uncertainties, the per-event Z boson yield is proportional to the number of binary collisions estimated by the Glauber model. The elliptic anisotropy of the azimuthal distribution of the Z boson with respect to the event plane is found to be consistent with zero.
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