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Searches for the supersymmetric partner of the top quark (stop) are motivated by natural supersymmetry, where the stop has to be light to cancel the large radiative corrections to the Higgs boson mass. This thesis presents three different searches for the stop at √s = 8 TeV and √s = 13 TeV using data from the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The thesis also includes a study of the primary vertex reconstruction performance in data and simulation at √s = 7 TeV using tt and Z events. All stop searches presented are carried out in final states with a single lepton, four or more jets and large missing transverse energy. A search for direct stop pair production is conducted with 20.3 fb−1 of data at a center-of-mass energy of √s = 8 TeV. Several stop decay scenarios are considered, including those to a top quark and the lightest neutralino and to a bottom quark and the lightest chargino. The sensitivity of the analysis is also studied in the context of various phenomenological MSSM models in which more complex decay scenarios can be present. Two different analyses are carried out at √s = 13 TeV. The first one is a search for both gluino-mediated and direct stop pair production with 3.2 fb−1 of data while the second one is a search for direct stop pair production with 13.2 fb−1 of data in the decay scenario to a bottom quark and the lightest chargino. The results of the analyses show no significant excess over the Standard Model predictions in the observed data. Consequently, exclusion limits are set at 95% CL on the masses of the stop and the lightest neutralino.

ATLAS est un détecteur de particules installé auprès du collisionneur de protons le LHC fonctionnant depuis 2010 avec une énergie dans le centre de masse de 7TeV. L'analyse de ses premières données in situ : les muons cosmiques en 2008, puis les données faisceau du LHC de 2009 ont permis de montrer que le calorimètre électromagnétique est opérationnel et performant sur l'ensemble de sa couverture. une étude visant à évaluer la matière en son amont a montré que les informations issues des électrons permettent une cartographie de la matière du trajectographe interne jusqu'à l'entrée du calorimètre. En 2009 et 2010, l'analyse des collisions à 900GeV et 7TeV a permis de vérifier l'accord entre données et simulation des variables utilisées pour l'identification des électrons. Enfin, la recherche du boson de jauge lourd chargé W' en électron et neutrino reste possible avec une définition exclusivement carlorimétrique de l'energie transverse manquante, plus robuste pour la nouvelle physique / ATLAS is a particule detector based at the Large Collider which has been delivering collisions with an energy in the cenre of masss of 7TeV from the start of 2010. The analysis of the first in situ data, cosmic muons in 2008 and LHC beam data in 2009, showed the electromagnetic calorimeter was operational and efficient on its whole coverage. In order to evaluate the amount of material upstream the calorimeter, a method was developed showing the information from the electron allows mapping the material from the inner tracker to the calorimeter entrance. In 2009 and 2010, the analysis of Vs=900GeV and Vs=7TeV collision data allowed to check the data-simulation agreement for electron identification variables. Finally, the search of a charged heavy gauge boson W' decaying in an electron and a neutrino remains possible using a calorimetric only definition of missing transverse energy.

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Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The performance of the ATLAS missing transverse momentum (ETmiss) high-level trigger during 2015 operation is presented. In 2015, the Large Hadron Collider operated at a higher centre-of-mass energy and shorter bunch spacing (sqrt(s) = 13 TeV and 25 ns, respectively) than in previous operation. In future operation, the Large Hadron Collider will operate at even higher instantaneous luminosity (O(10^34 cm^−2 s^−1)) and produce a higher average number of interactions per bunch crossing, <mu>. These operating conditions will pose significant challenges to the ETmiss trigger efficiency and rate. An overview of the new algorithms implemented to address these challenges, and of the existing algorithms is given. An integrated luminosity of 1.4 fb^−1 with <mu> = 14 was collected from pp collisions of the Large Hadron Collider by the ATLAS detector during October and November 2015 and was used to study the efficiency, correlation with offline reconstruction, and rates of the trigger algorithms. The performance was found to be satisfactory. From these studies, recommendations for future operating specifications of the trigger were made. / Graduate / 0798, / jchiu@uvic.ca

Many interesting physical processes produce non-interacting particles that could only be measured using the missing transverse momentum. The increase of the proton beam intensity in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) provides sensitivity to rare physics processes while inevitably increasing the number of simultaneous proton collisions in each event. The missing transverse momentum (MET) is a variable of great interest, defined as the negative sum of the transverse momentum of all visible particles. The precision of the MET determination deteriorates as the complexity of the recorded data escalates. Given the current complexity of data analysis, a new algorithm is developed to effectively determine the MET. Several well-understood physics processes were used to test the effectiveness of the newly designed algorithm. The performance of the new algorithm is also compared to that of the standard algorithm used in the ATLAS experiment. / Graduate

An angular analysis of the rare decay B0 → K∗ (K+ π− )µ+ µ− is presented. The study is based on a data sample from pp collisions at centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1 . An extended unbinned maximum-likelihood fit of the decay angular distribution is used to measure the CP-averaged angular observables FL, S3, S4, S5, S7 and S8 and the cor- responding form-factor independent observables P1, P4, P5, P6 and P8. The measurements are performed in the region 0.04 GeV2 < q2 < 6 GeV2 , where q is the dimuon invariant mass. The results are in agreement with the Standard Model predictions and com- patible with measurements published by other experiments. The most signifi- cant deviations are observed for parameters P4, P5 at the level of 2.7 standard deviations and for P8 which is 1.9 standard deviations away from one of the predictions. The P5 deviation in bin 4 GeV2 < q2 < 6 GeV2 is consistent with the one reported by the LHCb collaboration. The second part of this work shortly summarises the operation of the ATLAS Semiconductor Tracker, testing of the prototype module for the Inner Tracker strip upgrade, and the monitoring of non-collision background which was devel- oped as a part of this thesis.

The top quark is the most massive fundamental particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. Only experimentally observed in 1995, it can be used as a precise test of Standard Model predictions, and it could lend insight to the problem of what lies beyond the Standard Model. This thesis presents a measurement of top-quark pair production using data collected at a center-of-mass energy √s=7 TeV in 2011, and a search for production of vector-like quarks using data collected at √s=8 TeV in 2012. Both datasets were recorded by the ATLAS detector, a multipurpose proton-proton collider located at the CERN LHC outside of Geneva Switzerland. The top-quark pair production cross-section is measured as a function of four different variables and the results are presented as normalized, differential spectra. The variables considered are the transverse momentum of the top quark, and the mass, rapidity, and transverse momentum of the top-quark pair system. Events are selected in the lepton+jets channel, and the measured spectra are corrected for detector resolution and efficiency. The final results are compared with predictions from various Monte Carlo generators, theoretical calculations and proton parton distribution functions and found to be in reasonable agreement. Data is found to be softer than all predictions, particularly for high values of top-quark transverse momentum and the top-quark pair invariant mass. The search for vector-like quarks focuses on new heavy quarks that decay with a large branching ratio to a Z boson and a third generation Standard Model quark. Events are selected with at least two leptons (electrons or muons), and two of the leptons are required to reconstruct a Z boson with high transverse momentum. No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model prediction. Upper limits on the masses of vector-like T and B quarks are derived for various branching ratio hypotheses.