The search for the Higgs boson has been a cornerstone of the physics program at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland. The ATLAS experiment successfully discovered the Higgs using the so-called ‘Golden Channels’ of H0 -> gamma gamma and H0 -> ZZ(∗) using data samples collected during the 2011 and 2012 run periods. In order to check if the discovered Higgs is consistent with purely Standard Model behaviour, it is necessary to further confirm the existence of the Higgs in each production mode and decay channel predicted by the Standard Model. For this dissertation, a search for the Higgs was conducted using the H0 -> b bbar decay channel, where the Higgs is produced by the inverse pair decay of two weak bosons exchanged by a scattered quark pair, also known as Vector Boson Fusion (VBF). This analysis uses data samples collected during the 2011 run period by the ATLAS detector totalling 4.2 /fb of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. No excess of events above background expectation is observed and 95% confidence level upper limits on the Standard Model Higgs cross section times branching ratio, sigma(VBF) x BR(H0 -> b bbar), are derived for Higgs masses in the range 115 < mH < 130 GeV. An observed 95% confidence level upper limit of 18.7 times the Standard Model cross section is obtained for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. / Graduate / 0798

Using a measure of the jet energy resolution that relies on momentum balance in direct photon events, a correction to the modelled detector resolution is developed. The correction is produced by iteratively unfolding the model from the measured data. Jets in the model are then smeared using this correction, and the result is compared to the data using a χ2 test. This method is shown to be effective at improving the agreement between the data and the model, even when the model initially shows poor agreement to the data. / Graduate / 0798 / bmoir@ualberta.net

The HERA accelerator, an electron-proton collider facility based at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg, started delivering luminosity to the ZEUS experiment in May 1992. The short time of 96ns between bunch crossings and the fact that the primary source of detector activity in ZEUS does not come from the e-p interactions of interest but rather from other sources makes a high performance three level trigger system essential to data-taking. We present one part of the ZEUS trigger system, the Central Tracking Detector First Level Trigger (CTD-FLT). The principle of operation and the hardware implementation are discussed at length. A prototype system which was used during the early stages of ZEUS data-taking is described. We detail the principles of the CTD-FLT hardware testing and discuss aspects of the First Level Trigger data from the 1993 running period. During this time the CTD trigger has proved to be an invaluable part of the overall system. The high energies accessible at HERA make it possible to probe a variety of new physics models. The second part of this thesis focuses on one such model - Supersymmetry (SUSY). After an introduction to the model, a search for R-parity violating SUSY in the ZEUS data from the 1992 running period is described. No evidence for such signals has been found and hence we set upper limits on the mass scale of the theory. Finally we present a Monte Carlo study of the potential discovery reach of HERA for R-parity violating SUSY models, and come to the conclusion that HERA is an ideal place to look for such phenomena.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 241-262). / Microfiche. / xvi, 263 leaves, bound ill. (some col.) 29 cm

University, Diss., 2006--Frankfurt (Main).

Universiẗat, Diss., 2006--Frankfurt (Main). / Zsfassung in dt. und engl. Sprache.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xviii, 126 p.; also includes graphics (some col.) Includes bibliographical references (p. 121-126). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Dresden, Techn. Univ., Diss., 2003.

Frankfurt (Main), Univ., Diss., 2008

One of the primary goals of the CERN Large Hadron Collider is to search for new physics. Many such searches have been carried out, in particular searches for supersymmetry, yet no new physics beyond the Standard Model has been found. With a large number of free parameters introduced by frameworks such as supersymmetry, it can be difficult to interpret the null results of searches. The first analysis presented in this thesis attempts to tackle this difficulty head-on, and gives a summary of the constraints from the Run-1 ATLAS searches. A combination of 22 searches were used, with integrated luminosities of up to 20.3 inverse femtobarns of 7 and 8 TeV data. The results are interpreted in the context of the 19-dimensional phenomenological MSSM, and are presented in terms of the masses of supersymmetric particles. Constraints from dark matter, heavy flavour and precision electroweak measurements were incorporated, and results are also interpreted in terms of these observables. Properties of models missed by the Run-1 searches are also shown. The second analysis presented in this thesis documents a direct search for new physics, using 18.2 inverse femtobarns of 13 TeV data collected during 2015 and 2016 by the ATLAS detector. The search targets final states with large jet multiplicity (at least 7 to at least 10 jets), which can arise from the pair production of gluinos decaying via a cascade. Further requirements are imposed on the sum of masses of reclustered large-radius jets. No evidence for new physics is found, and the results are interpreted in both a model-independent way and in terms of two simplified supersymmetric models, one of which was inspired by the results of the first study. Limits on the gluino mass of up to 1600 GeV are set at the 95 &percnt; confidence level, extending previous limits.