First ATLAS observation and rate measurement of top quark pairs

The ATLAS Experiment observes the production of top quark pairs – a major milestone of the early LHC physics programme. As the heaviest known elementary particle with a strong coupling to the Higgs boson, the top quark is key to understanding physics at the energy frontier. As the LHC generates hundreds of millions of top quarks, the ATLAS Experiment is able to study the particle’s properties in great detail.