In-vacuo and in-air ion beam analysis techniques have been developed to investigate diffusion in materials at the University of Surrey 2MV Tandem accelerator. Following Energy calibration of the accelerator, two main systems were studied using these techniques. Lithium intercalation into thin films of vanadium pentoxide was investigated using both nuclear reaction analysis and backscattering spectrometry in-vacuo. Energy loss techniques were used for both proton backscattering and the reaction 7Li(p,alpha)4He. Simulated annealing software enabled both data sets to be analysed simultaneously to give the Li profile. An in-air scanning micro-PIXE technique was developed to investigate diffusion into cementitious materials. Internal and external normalisation methods for elemental diffusion studies have been developed, applied and compared. Both Chloride and Sulphate ingress in cement, mortars and concrete have been studied. Results were obtained both from samples prepared in the lab and from large core samples taken from concrete blocks exposed to a saline environment for 30 years. Additional studies were performed both to compare results from scanning micro-PIXE and micro-XRF techniques and to compare results from an abraded small core. Another application of the technique is the study of chloride and heavy element distributions in paste, mortar and brick samples before and after electrochemical extraction methodologies. A CdTe detector was used for the first time with an external beam, to detect Kalpha X-rays induced from the heavy elements.

The High Intensity and Energy (HIE) project represents a major upgrade of the ISOLDE (On-Line Isotope Mass Separator) nuclear facility at CERN with a mandate to significantly increase the energy, intensity and quality of the radioactive nuclear beams provided to the European nuclear physics community for research at the forefront of topics such as nuclear structure physics and nuclear astrophysics. The HIE-ISOLDE project focuses on the upgrade of the existing Radioactive ion beam EXperiment (REX) post-accelerator with the addition of a 40 MV superconducting linac comprising 32 niobium sputter-coated copper quarter-wave cavities operating at 101.28 MHz and at an accelerating gradient close to 6 MV/m. The energy of post-accelerated radioactive nuclear beams will be increased from the present ceiling of 3 MeV/u to over 10 MeV/u, with full variability in energy, and will permit, amongst others, Coulomb interaction and few-nucleon transfer reactions to be carried out on the full inventory of radionuclides available at ISOLDE. In this thesis the beam dynamics of the superconducting linac is studied with a focus on identifying and mitigating the sources of beam emittance dilution. Highlights include the suppression of a parametric resonance, compensation of the beam-steering effect intrinsic to quarter-wave cavities and a study of the energy change in the cavities well below their geometric velocity using second-order transit-time factors. The studies lead to the specification and tolerances for the linac components. An extensive investigation of REX was also carried out involving rf and beam measurements that facilitated the benchmarking of the beam dynamics codes that were used to design the matching sections and ensure the compatibility of the upgrade. In addition, a solid-state diagnostics system was developed as a tool to aid the quick and eventually automated tuning of the large number of cavities that will accompany the upgrade.

Feedback On Nanosecond Timescales (FONT) is a feedback system being developed to correct the beam position jitter in the extraction line and final focus system at the Accelerator Test Facility (ATF2), Tsukuba, Japan. FONT5 is currently being tested and is used to correct the intra-train jitter for a 3-bunch train; the bunch spacing is 154ns. This system measures the position of an electron bunch, using beam position monitors (BPMs). From this measurement, digital feedback electronics calculate the required correction, and sends a pulse to a feedback kicker. The feedback kicker then deflects the next bunch in the train in order to correct its position. Stripline BPMs are used at ATF2, and analogue processors manipulate the BPM signals before they are interpreted by the feedback electronics. The BPM system has been modelled and tested so that it can be parameterised and optimised. The BPMs are calibrated regularly, and the resolution of the system measured. Both of these properties have been analysed and modelled. This has allowed the resolution to be minimised. The resolution is an important factor which limits the achievable feedback correction. Several other factors have also been investigated; these include the feedback gain and the bunch-bunch correlation. To allow the feedback electronics to be controlled remotely, several data acquisition systems (DAQs) have been developed to allow data flow both to and from the digital board. The DAQs have been designed specically for the firmware on the FONT digital board.

Jets have been studied in high energy heavy ion collisions by measuring the angular correlation between particles at high transverse momentum. Differences in the yield and shape of the angular correlations as a function of system size give information on the medium produced in the collision. Such modifications can be used to infer the presence of a Quark-Gluon Plasma phase, wherein parton degrees of freedom are manifest over nuclear rather than nucleonic scales. In the present work, two-particle correlations were studied in \(d+Au\) and \(Au+Au\) collisions at \(\sqrt{s_{NN}}\) = 200 GeV measured by the STAR experiment at RHIC. The technique was extended to include pseudo-rapidity, permitting jets to be characterised in two-dimensions, and enabling the jet shape to be studied in greater detail. Corrections were developed for the incomplete detector acceptance and finite two-track resolution. Both unidentified and identified particle correlations were studied, using charged tracks and neutral strange particles \(\Lambda , \overline{\Lambda}\) , and \(K^0_{Short}\) reconstructed from their characteristic \(V\)0 decay topology. The focus of the analysis was the correlation peak centred at zero azimuthal separation, which is significantly enhanced in central \(Au+Au\) collisions compared to lighter systems. The modified peak was found to comprise a jet-like peak broadened in the pseudo-rapidity direction, sitting atop a long range pseudo-rapidity correlation. The former is suggestive of jet modification by the medium, and the latter may indicate a medium response to jets. Correlations with identified particles indicated the modified same side peak may in part be formed from particles originating from the underlying event.

The LHCb experiment, based at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, is primarily designed to make precision measurements of the decays of heavy flavour hadrons, such as B and D mesons. This thesis is composed of two parts: the first consists of two studies of LHCb's vertex locator (VELO) and the second describes the development of methods for recording the decay D0->K-mu+nu_mu. The first VELO study involves calibration and monitoring of the gain (i.e. the detector response to input charge from particles). We propose a robust method to measure the gain response of each silicon sensor using calibration bits output by the sensors, and a method to recalibrate the gain simple enough to be followed by non-expert VELO users. This is followed by an investigation into into the prospects of using the VELO to perform particle identification using the characteristic energy deposition of each particle species (dE/dx). Finally, studies into the development of a trigger and a so-called 'stripping line' for recording D0->K-mu+nu_mu decays is presented. The relatively high cross-section for charm decays in LHCb mean this decay (with a branching fraction of 3%) occurs frequently, and the challenge of a trigger is to reduce this to a rate acceptable to write to disk. Finally, based on a sample of data from July and August 2011, the measured q 2 distribution for this decay is compared to the simple single-pole theoretical model, and the pole mass is measured to bem_pole=2.35 + 0.81 - 0.35 GeV/c 2.

This thesis describes the design of novel magnetic lattices for the transport line and gantry of a charged particle therapy complex. The designs use non-scaling Fixed Field Alternating Gradient (ns-FFAG) magnets and were made as part of the PAMELA project. The main contributions in this thesis are the near-perfect FFAG dispersion suppression design process and the designs of the transport line and the gantry lattices. The primary challenge when designing an FFAG gantry is that particles with different momenta take up different lateral positions within the magnets. This is called dispersion and causes problems at three points: the entrance to the gantry, which must be rotated without distortion of the beam; at the end of the gantry where reduced dispersion is required for entry to the scanning system; and a third of the way through the gantry, where a switch in curvature of the magnets is required. Due to their non-linear fields, dispersion suppression in conventional FFAGs is never perfect. However, as this thesis shows, a solution can be found through manipulation of the field components, meaning near-perfect dispersion suppression can be achieved using ns-FFAG magnets (although at a cost of irregular optics). The design process for an FFAG dispersion suppressor shown in this thesis is a novel solution to a previously unsolved problem. Other challenges in the gantry lattice design, such as height and the control of the optics, are tackled and a final gantry design presented and discussed. The starting point for the transport line is a straight FFAG lattice design. This is optimised and matched to a 45o bend. Fixed field solutions to the problem of extracting to the treatment room are discussed, but a time variable field solution is decided on for practical and patient safety reasons. A matching scheme into the gantry room is then designed and presented.

An accurate determination of the angle γ of the Unitary Triangle is one of the most important goals of the LHCb experiment. The LHCb detector is a single-arm spectrometer at the LHC, optimised for beauty and charm flavour physics. As the angle γ is the least experimentally constrained parameter of the Unitary Triangle, its precise experimental determination can be used to test the validity of the Standard Model. The Unitary Triangle phase γ can be extracted in B → DK decays at tree-level, exploiting the interference between b → c(ūs) and b → u(c̄s) transitions. This interference is sensitive to γ and can give measurable charge asymmetries. In particular, γ ≠ 0 is required to produce direct CP violation in B decays and this is the only CP-violating mechanism for the decay of charged B^± mesons. In this thesis, an analysis of CP violation in B^± → DK^± and B^± → Dπ^± decays is presented, where the D meson is reconstructed in the two-body final states: K^±π^∓, K⁺K⁻, π⁺π⁻ and π^±K^∓. The analysis uses the full 2011 LHCb dataset of 1.0 fb^-1, collected from pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV. Several CP-related quantities, e.g the ratio of B → DK and B → Dπ branching fractions and their charge asymmetries, are measured via a simultaneous fit to the invariant mass distributions of the modes considered. The suppressed B^± → DK^± mode is observed for the first time with ≈ 10σ significance. Once all measurements are combined, direct CP violation is established in B^± decays with a total significance of 5.8σ.

This thesis presents a cross-section measurement of the Z -+ TeTh process performed using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The data used were collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV during 2010 and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb-I. This measurement uses the final state where one T lepton decays leptonically, to an electron or muon, plus neutrinos, and the other T lepton decays hadronically. The "(* / Z -+ a, It and di-boson background processes are estimated using Monte Carlo simulation, the W -+ TV Monte Carlo background prediction is estimated using a semi data-driven method. The multijet background is estimated with a fully data-driven 'ABCD' method using three exclusive control regions built by inverting uncorrelated requirements on the isolation of the electron or muon and the product of the electric charge of the identified electron or muon and hadronically decayed T lepton. The measured cross-sections in each channel are corrected for the individual branching ratios and yield the total cross-section a(Z -+ TT, minv 66 - 116 GeV) = 1142 ± 135.5(stat.) ± 206.2(syst.) ± 40. 19(1umi.) ± 3.6(theo.) pb for the electron channel and a(Z -+ TT, minv 66 - 116 GeV) = 857.6 ± 81.4(stat.) ± 132.5(syst.) ± 30.19(lumi.) ± 2.8(theo.) pb for the muon channel, where the invariant mass of the Z boson is between 66 and 116 GeV. These are in good agreement with the theoretical prediction of960 ± 49.5 pb. Performing a measurement of a well-known Standard Model process using the ATLAS de- tector in this new high energy regime is essential for validating the T lepton identification in particular, which is essential for any new physics search such as H -+ TeTh' A cut-based analysis for the Vector Boson Fusion produced Higgs boson decaying to two T leptons channel is introduced and the possibility of using the more complex analysis technique, the Matrix Element method, to increase sensitivity is discussed.