PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, vol.109, no.21, 2012 (SCI-Expanded)
A search for direct pair production of supersymmetric top squarks ((t) over tilde (1)) is presented, assuming the (t) over tilde (1) decays into a top quark and the lightest supersymmetric particle, (chi) over tilde (0)(1), and that both top quarks decay to purely hadronic final states. A total of 16 (4) events are observed compared to a predicted standard model background of 13.5(-3.6)(+3.7) (4.4(-1.3)(+1.7)) events in two signal regions based on integral Ldt = 4.7 fb(-1) of pp collision data taken at root s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. An exclusion region in the (t) over tilde (1) versus (chi) over tilde (0)(1) mass plane is evaluated: 370 < m(<(t)over tilde>1) < 465 GeV is excluded for m(<(chi)over tilde>10) similar to 0 GeV while m((t) over tilde1) = 445 GeV is excluded for m((chi) over tilde 10) <= 50 GeV.