Search for Pair Production of a Heavy Up-Type Quark Decaying to a W Boson and a b Quark in the lepton + jets Channel with the ATLAS Detector

A search is presented for production of a heavy up-type quark (t') together with its antiparticle, assuming subsequent decay to a W boson and a b quark, t't'bar -> W+b W-bbar. The search is based on 1.04 fb^-1 of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Data are analyzed in the lepton+jets final state, characterized by a high transverse momentum isolated electron or muon, high missing transverse momentum and at least three jets. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is observed. A 95% C.L. lower limit is set at m(t') > 404 GeV.