Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: Dept. of Pharmaceutics. Bibliography : leaves 198-208. Also available online via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Virginia Commonwealth University, 2008. / Prepared for: Dept. of Pharmaceutics. Title from thesis description page. Includes bibliographical references.

<p>This thesis treats two different projects, both aiming at experimental tests at hadron colliders of some specific predictions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and of its Minimal Supersymmetric extension (MSSM). The thesis is based on four papers.</p><p>Papers I-III study the discovery potential for a heavy charged Higgs boson of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Charged Higgs bosons are part of the Higgs sector in many extensions to the SM and their detection would be an unambiguous sign of new physics.</p><p>If the charged Higgs boson is heavier than the top quark, its dominant decay mode is into a top and a bottom quark. Searches in this decay channel at ATLAS are difficult mainly due to the large top-quark pair-production background. The possible gain obtained when requiring 4 b-tagged jets for the signal events is studied, but no significant improvement compared to an analysis requiring 3 b-tagged jets is found.</p><p>If the masses of supersymmetric particles are sufficiently small, heavy charged Higgs bosons can decay into a chargino-neutralino pair. We show that in this decay channel charged Higgs bosons can be detected, given a favourable choice of parameters governing the MSSM.</p><p>In a large-mass-splitting MSSM scenario, the charged Higgs decay into a W boson and a neutral Higgs can have a large branching fraction. We conclude, however, that charged Higgs searches in this decay channel are made difficult by a large, irreducible SM background.</p><p>Paper IV describes a measurement of the top-quark pair production cross-section performed with the DØ detector at the Tevatron collider. Signal events in the muon+jets decay channel are selected using topological event characteristics and a preliminary result of σ(ttbar)=3.8 +1.1-1.1(stat) +0.9-0.8(syst) +0.3-0.2(lumi) pb is obtained using an integrated luminosity of 363/pb.</p>

This thesis treats two different projects, both aiming at experimental tests at hadron colliders of some specific predictions of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and of its Minimal Supersymmetric extension (MSSM). The thesis is based on four papers. Papers I-III study the discovery potential for a heavy charged Higgs boson of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Charged Higgs bosons are part of the Higgs sector in many extensions to the SM and their detection would be an unambiguous sign of new physics. If the charged Higgs boson is heavier than the top quark, its dominant decay mode is into a top and a bottom quark. Searches in this decay channel at ATLAS are difficult mainly due to the large top-quark pair-production background. The possible gain obtained when requiring 4 b-tagged jets for the signal events is studied, but no significant improvement compared to an analysis requiring 3 b-tagged jets is found. If the masses of supersymmetric particles are sufficiently small, heavy charged Higgs bosons can decay into a chargino-neutralino pair. We show that in this decay channel charged Higgs bosons can be detected, given a favourable choice of parameters governing the MSSM. In a large-mass-splitting MSSM scenario, the charged Higgs decay into a W boson and a neutral Higgs can have a large branching fraction. We conclude, however, that charged Higgs searches in this decay channel are made difficult by a large, irreducible SM background. Paper IV describes a measurement of the top-quark pair production cross-section performed with the DØ detector at the Tevatron collider. Signal events in the muon+jets decay channel are selected using topological event characteristics and a preliminary result of σ(ttbar)=3.8 +1.1-1.1(stat) +0.9-0.8(syst) +0.3-0.2(lumi) pb is obtained using an integrated luminosity of 363/pb.

Determining cosmological parameters from current observational data requires knowledge of the primordial density perturbations generated during inflation. We begin by examining a model of inflation along a flat direction of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) and the power spectrum of perturbations it can produce. We consider the fine-tuning issues associated with this model and discuss a modification of the potential to include a hybrid transition that reduces the fine-tuning, without affecting the viability of the model. However, supersymmetric flat directions might play a role in other models of inflation as well. In particular, they may cause a feature in the primordial power spectrum of perturbations, unlike the scale-free spectrum assumed in the standard Lambda Cold Dark Matter (LCDM) cosmological model. We then show that in the presence of such a feature, an alternative cosmological model with a large local void and no dark energy provides a good fit to both Type Ia supernovae and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) data from the WMAP satellite. Constraints from the locally measured Hubble parameter, baryon acoustic oscillations and primordial nucleosynthesis are also satisfied. This degeneracy motivates a search for other independent observational tests of LCDM. The integrated Sachs-Wolfe (ISW) imprint of large-scale structure on the CMB is one such test. The ISW imprint of superstructures of size ~100 Mpc/h at redshift z~0.5 has been detected with >4 sigma significance, however it has been noted that the signal is much larger than expected. We revisit the calculation using linear theory predictions in a LCDM cosmology and find the theoretical prediction is inconsistent by >3 sigma with the observation. If the observed signal is indeed due to the ISW effect then huge, extremely underdense voids are far more common in the observed universe than predicted by LCDM.

<p>This thesis presents two measurements of the top quark using 230 pb-1 of data taken with the D0 detector at the Tevatron accelerator. The first measurement determines the top pair production cross section at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions. In the standard model of particle physics the top quark decays almost exclusively into a W boson and a b quark. Candidate events are selected by requiring that at least one jet in the event is tagged with the secondary vertex algorithm. The measured top pair production cross section is:</p><p>8.6 +1.6-1.5 (stat. + syst.) +- 0.6 (lumi.) pb.</p><p>The second measurement uses the observed and predicted number of events with 0, 1 and 2 b-tagged jets to estimate the ratio R:</p><p>R = B(t->Wb) / B(t->Wq)</p><p>where q stands for any down-type quark. The measured value is</p><p>R = 1.03 +0.19-0.17 (stat. + syst.)</p><p>in good agreement with the standard model prediction of R=1. The result can be used to obtain a lower limit for R:</p><p>R > 0.61 (95% C.L.).</p>

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No description available.

This thesis presents two measurements of the top quark using 230 pb-1 of data taken with the D0 detector at the Tevatron accelerator. The first measurement determines the top pair production cross section at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions. In the standard model of particle physics the top quark decays almost exclusively into a W boson and a b quark. Candidate events are selected by requiring that at least one jet in the event is tagged with the secondary vertex algorithm. The measured top pair production cross section is: 8.6 +1.6-1.5 (stat. + syst.) +- 0.6 (lumi.) pb. The second measurement uses the observed and predicted number of events with 0, 1 and 2 b-tagged jets to estimate the ratio R: R = B(t-&gt;Wb) / B(t-&gt;Wq) where q stands for any down-type quark. The measured value is R = 1.03 +0.19-0.17 (stat. + syst.) in good agreement with the standard model prediction of R=1. The result can be used to obtain a lower limit for R: R &gt; 0.61 (95% C.L.).

No description available.