Electroweak Physics At The Large Hadron Collider With The Atlas Detector

This thesis discusses searches for electroweakly produced supersymmetric partners of the gauge and the Higgs bosons (gauginos and higgsinos) decaying to multiple leptons, using pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV. The thesis presents an in-depth study of multiple searches, as well as the first 13 TeV cross section measurement for the dominant background in these searches, WZ production. Two searches were performed using 36.1/fb of data: the gaugino search, which makes use of a novel kinematic variable, and the higgsino search, which produced the first higgsino limits at the LHC. A search using 139/fb of data makes use of a new technique developed in this thesis to cross check an excess of data above the background expectation in a search using a Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction technique. None of the searches showed a significant excess of data, and limits were expanded with respect to previous results. These searches will benefit from the addition of luminosity during HL-LHC; however, the current detector will not be able to withstand the increase in radiation. Electronics for the detector upgrade are tested and irradiated to ensure their performance.

The book discusses the recent experimental results obtained at the LHC that involve electroweak bosons. The results are placed into an appropriate theoretical and historical context. The work pays special attention to the rising subject of hadronically decaying bosons with high boosts, documenting the state-of-the-art identification techniques and highlighting typical results. The text is not limited to electroweak physics in the strict sense, but also discusses the use of electroweak vector-bosons as tool in the study of other subjects in particle physics, such as determinations of the proton structure or the search for new exotic particles. The book is particularly well suited for graduate students, starting their thesis work on topics that involve electroweak bosons, as the book provides a comprehensive description of phenomena observable at current accelerators as well as a summary of the most relevant experimental techniques.

This book is written by the ATLAS Collaboration at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), to document and reflect on its more than 25 years of history. It covers all aspects of this global science project at the forefront of particle physics. The historical part recalls first the early stages of discussions in the community leading to the formation of the collaboration in 1992. In a unique approach, the second part documents the evolution from early detector concepts to the final instrument, covering the technical, financial and human aspects. This includes the phases of construction of detector components in the various institutes around the world as well as their installation and commissioning in the underground cavern at CERN.An important part is devoted to the operation of the whole experiment. The book highlights the capabilities and physics accomplishments so far, including the Higgs boson discovery (jointly announced with CMS). It features the various aspects of a broad spectrum of activities needed to arrive at the physics results. The book includes also an outlook to the detector upgrade activities preparing the experiment for the high-luminosity LHC phase of the next decades. Last but not least, it reveals the human aspects of the large ATLAS community working together pursuing common physics goals.The book is aimed at a broad readership with interest in large science projects and their history, as well as in the human endeavour of a worldwide collaboration.

This thesis describes searches for new particles predicted by the super symmetry (SUSY) theory, a theory extending beyond the current Standard Model of particle physics, using the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The thesis focuses on searches for stop and sbottom squarks, the SUSY partners of the top and bottom quarks, which are expected to be lighter than the partners of the first and second generation quarks and therefore good candidates for the first evidence of SUSY. It describes novel techniques for estimating and rejecting the Standard-Model backgrounds to searches for these particles. It also includes an independent analysis seeking to constrain the Standard Model ttZ background process, which also represents the first ATLAS search for this rare process at the LHC. The stop squark analysis described, with substantial leading contributions from the author, is the first search for these particles at the LHC to use the jets plus missing transverse energy plus 0-lepton signature and provides the world's best limits on the stop mass for light neutralino LSPs. All in all, the thesis describes three different world-leading analyses in both Standard Model and SUSY physics and therefore represents a major contribution to the field.

This thesis presents a search for long-lived particles decaying into displaced electrons and/or muons with large impact parameters. This signature provides unique sensitivity to the production of theoretical lepton-partners, sleptons. These particles are a feature of supersymmetric theories, which seek to address unanswered questions in nature. The signature searched for in this thesis is difficult to identify, and in fact, this is the first time it has been probed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It covers a long-standing gap in coverage of possible new physics signatures. This thesis describes the special reconstruction and identification algorithms used to select leptons with large impact parameters and the details of the background estimation. The results are consistent with background, so limits on slepton masses and lifetimes in this model are calculated at 95% CL, drastically improving on the previous best limits from the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP).

During more than 10 years, from 1989 until 2000, the LEP accelerator and the four LEP experiments, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have taken data for a large amount of measurements at the frontier of particle physics. The main outcome is a thorough and successful test of the Standard Model of electroweak interactions. Mass and width of the Z and W bosons were measured precisely, as well as the Z and photon couplings to fermions and the couplings among gauge bosons. The rst part of this work will describe the most important physics results of the LEP experiments. Emphasis is put on the properties of the W boson, which was my main research eld at LEP. Especially the precise determination of its mass and its couplings to the other gauge bosons will be described. Details on physics effects like Colour Reconnection and Bose-Einstein Correlations in W-pair events shall be discussed as well. A conclusive summary of the current electroweak measurements, including low-energy results, as the pillars of possible future ndings will be given. The important contributions from Tevatron, like the measurement of the top quark and W mass, will round up the present day picture of electroweak particle physics. This is an open access book.

This comprehensive volume summarizes and structures the multitude of results obtained at the LHC in its first running period and draws the grand picture of today’s physics at a hadron collider. Topics covered are Standard Model measurements, Higgs and top-quark physics, flavour physics, heavy-ion physics, and searches for supersymmetry and other extensions of the Standard Model. Emphasis is placed on overview and presentation of the lessons learned. Chapters on detectors and the LHC machine and a thorough outlook into the future complement the book. The individual chapters are written by teams of expert authors working at the forefront of LHC research.