High Jet Multiplicity Physics At The Lhc

This book describes research in two different areas of state-of-the-art hadron collider physics, both of which are of central importance in the field of particle physics. The first part of the book focuses on the search for supersymmetric particles called gluinos. The book subsequently presents a set of precision measurements of “multi-jet” collision events, which involve large numbers of newly created particles, and are among the dominant processes at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Now that a Higgs boson has been discovered at the LHC, the existence (or non-existence) of supersymmetric particles is of the utmost interest and significance, both theoretically and experimentally. In addition, multi-jet collision events are an important background process for a wide range of analyses, including searches for supersymmetry.

This book reviews the latest experimental results on jet physics from proton-proton collisons at the LHC. Jets allow to determine the strong coupling constant over a wide range of energies up the highest ones possible so far, and to constrain the gluon parton distribution of the proton, both of which are important uncertainties on theory predictions in general and for the Higgs boson in particular.A novel approach in this book is to categorize the examined quantities according to the types of absolute, ratio, or shape measurements and to explain in detail the advantages and differences. Including numerous illustrations and tables the physics message and impact of each observable is clearly elaborated.

The ALICE experiment is one of the experiments currently prepared for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, Geneva, starting operation end of 2007. ALICE is dedicated to the research on nucleus-nucleus collisions at ultra-relativistic energies, which addresses the properties of strongly interacting matter under varying conditions of high density and temperature. The conditions provided at the LHC allow significant qualitative improvement with respect to previous studies. In particular, energetic probes, light quarks and gluons, will be abundantly produced. These probes might be identified by their fragmentation into correlated particles, so called jets, of high enough energy to allow full reconstruction of jet properties; even in the underlying heavy-ion environment.Understanding the dependence of high-energy jet production and fragmentation influenced by the dense medium created in the collision region is an open field of active research. Generally, one expects energy loss of the probes due to medium-induced gluon radiation. It is suggested that hadronization products of these, rather soft gluons may be contained within the jet emission cone, resulting in a modification of the characteristic jet fragmentation, as observed via longitudinal and transverse momentum distributions with respect to the direction of the initial parton, as well as of the multiplicity distributions arising from the jet fragmentation. Particle momenta parallel to the jet axis are softened (jet quenching), while transverse to it increased (transverse heating). The present thesis studies the capabilities of the ALICE detectors to measure these jets and quantifies obtainable rates and the quality of jet reconstruction, in both proton-proton and lead-lead collisions at the LHC. In particular, it is addressed whether modification of the jet fragmentation can be detected within the high-particle-multiplicity environment of central lead-lead collisions.

After an extensive overview of the Standard Model and of the theory and phenomenology of Supersymmetry, this book describes the recent development of the ATLAS Particle Flow algorithm, a hadronic reconstruction technique aiming at enhancing the sensitivity of the experiment to new physics through the combination of the information from different ATLAS sub-detectors. The first ever ATLAS strong SUSY search exploiting this technique is also described, reporting the results and exclusion limits obtained using the complete proton-proton collision dataset recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the second Run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

This thesis presents the first measurements of jets in relativistic heavy ion collisions as reported by the ATLAS Collaboration. These include the first direct observation of jet quenching through the observation of a centrality-dependent dijet asymmetry. Also, a series of jet suppression measurements are presented, which provide quantitative constraints on theoretical models of jet quenching. These results follow a detailed introduction to heavy ion physics with emphasis on the phenomenon of jet quenching and a comprehensive description of the ATLAS detector and its capabilities with regard to performing these measurements.

This book introduces the reader to the field of jet substructure, starting from the basic considerations for capturing decays of boosted particles in individual jets, to explaining state-of-the-art techniques. Jet substructure methods have become ubiquitous in data analyses at the LHC, with diverse applications stemming from the abundance of jets in proton-proton collisions, the presence of pileup and multiple interactions, and the need to reconstruct and identify decays of highly-Lorentz boosted particles. The last decade has seen a vast increase in our knowledge of all aspects of the field, with a proliferation of new jet substructure algorithms, calculations and measurements which are presented in this book. Recent developments and algorithms are described and put into the larger experimental context. Their usefulness and application are shown in many demonstrative examples and the phenomenological and experimental effects influencing their performance are discussed. A comprehensive overview is given of measurements and searches for new phenomena performed by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations. This book shows the impressive versatility of jet substructure methods at the LHC.

This proceedings volume provides a comprehensive overview of the selected reports given at the International Workshops on Very High Multiplicity Physics from 2000 through 2007. These include results of original investigations dedicated to very high multiplicity processes, collective phenomena in quark gluon plasma, correlator analyses, polarization effects, and pion gas condensation, among others. The greater part of the material is devoted to basic technical aspects of the NICA/MPD project. Essential attention is paid to predictions of the multiperipheral model, perturbative QCD, physics of small x, and fractal analysis and statistical physics approaches to multiple production.The book is an important reference for physicists working in elementary particle physics. It is also a suitable read for undergraduate students.