Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to tau+tau- pairs in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

A search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to pairs of tau leptons with the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The analysis is based on proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, recorded in 2011 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.06 fb^−1 . After signal selection, 4630 events are observed in this data sample. The observed number of events is consistent with the total expected background of 4900 ± 600 events. Exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived for the production cross section of a generic Higgs boson phi as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for A/H/h production in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as a function of the parameters mA and tan beta.