The ATLAS Experiment is one of the four large detectors located at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. In summer 2008, ATLAS is expected to start collecting data from proton-proton collisions at 14 TeV centre-of-mass energy. In the centre of the detector, the reconstruction of charged particle tracks is performed by silicon and drift tube based sub-detectors. In order to achieve the ATLAS physics goals the resolutions of the measured track parameters should not be degraded by more than 20% due to misalignment. Thus, the relative positions of the silicon detector elements have to be known to an accuracy of about 10 micrometers in the coordinate with the best measurement precision. This requirement can be achieved by track based alignment algorithms combined with measurements from hardware based alignment techniques. A robust track based alignment method based on track residual and overlap residual optimisation has been developed and implemented into the ATLAS offline software framework. The alignment algorithm has been used to align a test beam setup and also part of the final ATLAS detector using cosmic ray muons. Several simulation studies showed that the algorithm will be able to align the full detector with collision data. In addition to detector misalignments, limitations in the knowledge of the proton structure are going to affect physics discoveries at the LHC. Therefore, parton distribution uncertainties in high-mass Drell-Yan processes have been determined. This study includes the analysis of the forward-backward asymmetry. It has been performed on the level of next-to-leading order in both, Monte Carlo simulation using k-factors and parton distribution functions. This analysis is crucial for new physics searches with the ATLAS detector.

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This thesis presents a measurement of the effective B0s decay width, ΓFS, from a single exponential fit to the flavour-specific decay channel B0s → D-s π +. This measurement is based on an integrated luminosity of 340 pb-1 recorded by LHCb in 2011 at a center of mass energy of 7TeV. The dataset is divided into two exclusive selections. B0s → D-s (( ϕ →K-K+) π-)π + only has a significant background contribution arising from combinatorial background, and the modelling of this is determined entirely by the data. B0s → D-s ((K-K* (892)0 → K+ π-))π + has a larger contribution from combinatoric and mis-identified background and provides an alternative measurement. A simultaneous fit for the effective B0s decay width is performed to both the datasets leading to the result: ΓFS = 0:668 ± 0:017 ± 0:031 ps-1 The result is then combined with information from the LHCb B0s → J/ψØ analysis leading to an improved measurement of the average B0 s decay width: Γs = 0:666 ± 0:010 ± 0:031 ps-1

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

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.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The Standard Model of particle physics provides an accurate description of all experimental data to date. The only unobserved piece of the Standard Model is the Higgs boson, a consequence of the spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry by the Higgs mechanism. An alternative to the Higgs mechanism is proposed by Technicolor theories which break electroweak symmetry dynamically through a new force. Technicolor predicts many new particles, called Technihadrons, that could be observed by experiments at hadron colliders. This thesis presents a search for two of the lightest Technihadrons, the ρT and ωT . The Low-Scale Technicolor model predicts the phenomenology of these new states. The ρT and ωT are produced through qq annihilation and couple to Standard Model fermions through the Drell-Yan process, which can result in the dimuon final state. The ρT and ω T preferentially decay to the πT and a Standard Model gauge boson if kinematically allowed. Changing the mass of the πT relative to that of the ρT and ωT affects the cross section times branching fraction to dimuons. The ρT and ωT are expected to have masses below about 1 TeV. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN outside of Geneva, Switzerland, produces proton-proton collisions with a center of mass energy of 7 TeV. A general purpose high energy physics detector ATLAS has been used in this analysis to search for Technihadrons decaying to two muons. We use the ATLAS detector to reconstruct the tracks of muons with high transverse momentum coming from these proton-proton collisions. The dimuon invariant mass spectrum is analyzed above 130 GeV to test the consistency of the observed data with the Standard Model prediction. We observe excellent agreement between our data and the background only hypothesis, and proceed to set limits on the cross section times branching ratio of the ρT and ωT as a function of their mass using the Low-Scale Technicolor model. We combine the dielectron and dimuon channels to exclude masses of the ρT and ωT between 130 GeV - 480 GeV at 95% Confidence Level for masses of the πT between 50 GeV - 480 GeV. In addition for the parameter choice of m(π T ) = m(ρT /ω T )- 100 GeV, 95% Confidence Level limits are set excluding masses of the ρT and ωT below 470 GeV. This analysis represents the current world's best limit on this model. / 2031-01-01

The highly celebrated discovery of a new particle with a mass of 125 GeV in proton-proton collisions by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider in 2012 has been shown to be compatible with the Standard Model description of the Higgs boson. However, in order to fully verify the Standard Model nature of the Higgs boson, most of its properties still remain to be measured. Such measurements include differential cross section measurements, which are shown here for the H→WW decay channel and the coupling of the Higgs boson to bottom quarks, for which a study of future prospects is presented. Differential fiducial cross section measurements of the Higgs boson were performed in the H → WW*→lvlv channel at the ATLAS detector with 20 fb−1 of √s = 8 TeV collision data. For Higgs bosons produced by gluon-gluon fusion, the cross section is measured as a function of kinematic variables, including transverse momentum and rapidity of the Higgs boson, as well as the number of jets associated with the Higgs event. The obtained distributions are unfolded to a fiducial volume using a two-dimensional iterative Bayesian algorithm. The measured fiducial differential cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators. The total cross section measured in the fiducial volume defined by the charged lepton and neutrino kinematic properties is 36.0 ± 9.7 fb. Additionally the jet-veto efficiency in the fiducial volume is extracted from the differential cross sections. An analysis is presented of Higgs boson production and decay into bottom quarks in association with a vector boson at the ATLAS detector for the future high-luminosity LHC with proton-proton collisions at √s = 14 TeV. The vector bosons are reconstructed from Z→l+l− or W→lv final states, where l is an electron or muon. The analysis uses generator-level Monte Carlo samples to which efficiency and resolution smearing functions are applied. These reproduce the expected resolution of the upgraded ATLAS detector for the foreseen amount of pile-up due to multiple overlapping proton-proton collisions. The analysis of the ZH(→ l+l−b¯b) channel is presented and results are combined with the WH(→lvb¯b) channel from a corresponding study. For an integrated luminosity of 300 fb−1 using an average pile-up of 60, the expected significance is 3.9 σ with an expected error on the signal strength of 25%. Likewise, for 3000 fb−1 using an average pileup of 140 the expected significance is 8.8 σ , and the error on the signal strength is expected to be about 15%.