This thesis describes several calibrations of the Time-of-Flight (TOF) detector at the Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR). These calibrations are required to allow Particle Identification (PID) which benefits many physics analysis. These calibrations treat the Integral Non-Linearity (INL) of the time to digital converters, the global offsets, the slewing from pulse time dependence on the pulse height, and the transmission times inside the detectors. Each of these corrections will be described. The data for the INL correction was collected at Rice University using two different electronics configurations. Care was taken to insure the two approaches were consistent. These calibrations were tested using "cable-delay tests." Data from RHIC Run 9 200 GeV data will be used to confirm the effectiveness of the INL, offset, slewing, and transmission time calibrations.

The Qweak experiment will provide the most precise determination of the proton’s weak charge Q^p_W by measuring the parity-violating asymmetry in elastic electron-proton scattering at low momentum transfer Q^2 = 0.0250 (GeV/c)^2. Qpw is related to the weak mixing angle sin^2\theta_W, a fundamental parameter of the standard model. A final measurement of the weak charge at the proposed 4% relative uncertainty is sensitive to certain types of new parity-violating physics beyond the standard model at the TeV mass-scale. Data were taken over a two year period beginning in 2010, using a custom apparatus installed in Hall-C at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Newport News, Virginia. A 180 microamp beam of longitudinally polarized electrons was accelerated to 1.165 GeV and then scattered from unpolarized protons in a liquid hydrogen target. The scattered electrons were then collimated and steered using a magnetic spectrometer onto a set of azimuthally symmetric quartz bar Cherenkov detectors. The performance of this main detector subsystem will be described in detail in this dissertation. A blinded analysis of Run-II, roughly 2/3 of the entire Qweak data set, resulted in an elastic ep asymmetry of -235.6 +/- 8.7 (Stat) +/- 9.3 (Syst.) +/- 39.3 (Blind) ppb. Using this value, the proton’s weak charge was calculated to be QpW = 0.0714 +/- 0.0093. This constitutes a 17% relative measurement, that will reduce to < 9% upon unblinding the asymmetry. This dissertation will provide the details that went into extracting both the parity-violating asymmetry and the weak charge of the proton. / October 2015

This dissertation presents a measurement of the \(W^{\pm}Z\) production cross section and limits on anomalous triple gauge couplings in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy of 7 TeV using data produced by LHC collisions and acquired by the ATLAS detector in 2011. The measurement and limits probe the electroweak sector of the Standard Model at high energies and allow for generic tests for new physics that could be present at high energy scales. This analysis is also useful for understanding the ATLAS detector response in the presence of multi-lepton signatures. The dataset used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of \(1.02 fb^{−1}\). The measurement relies on the leptonic decay modes of the W and Z, resulting in final states with electrons, muons, and missing energy. Events are selected by requiring three high momentum leptons, a large missing transverse energy, a Z candidate (reconstructed from two of the leptons) with a mass consistent with the Z pole mass, and a W candidate (reconstructed from the third lepton and the missing energy) with a large transverse mass. The backgrounds to the \(W^{\pm}Z\) process are estimated using Monte Carlo simulations and Data-Driven techniques. A total of 71 \(W^{\pm}Z\) candidate events are observed in data, with 50.3 signal and 12.1 background events expected. The production cross section is extracted from these events using a maximum likelihood method, and is found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation. Limits at the 95% confidence interval on anomalous triple gauge couplings are extracted from the observed event yields using a frequentist limit setting approach. / Physics

In this thesis we examine the method of counting BB events produced in the BaBar experiment. The original method was proposed in 2000, but improvements to track reconstruction and our understanding of the detector since that date make it appropriate to revisit the B Counting method. We propose a new set of cuts designed to minimize the sensitivity to time-varying backgrounds. We find the new method counts BB events with an associated systematic uncertainty of ±0.6%.

No description available.

We compute the σ(α3/8) virtual QCD corrections for the process e+e- →qqg arising from the interference of the two-loop and tree amplitudes and from the self-interference of the one-loop amplitude. The results are presented in the form of both matrix elements and helicity amplitudes. The calculation of the matrix elements is performed by the direct evaluation of the Feynman diagrams and corresponding loop integrals. The helicity amplitudes are derived in a scheme-independent way from the coefficients appearing in the general expression for the tensorial structure of this process. The tensor coefficients are then extracted from the Feynman diagrams by means of projectors. The one- and two-loop integrals appearing in the amplitudes are reduced to a small set of known master integrals by means of integration-by-parts identities. This reduction has been automated by construction of an algorithm based on that proposed by Laporta. The infrared pole structure of both the matrix elements and helicity amplitudes is shown to agree with the predictions made by the infrared factorisation formula of Catani. The analytic results for the finite terms, regularised in conventional dimensional regularisation and renormalised in the MS scheme, are presented, expressed in terms of one- and two-dimensional harmonic polylogarithms.

In this thesis we examine the method of counting BB events produced in the BaBar experiment. The original method was proposed in 2000, but improvements to track reconstruction and our understanding of the detector since that date make it appropriate to revisit the B Counting method. We propose a new set of cuts designed to minimize the sensitivity to time-varying backgrounds. We find the new method counts BB events with an associated systematic uncertainty of ±0.6%.

The standard model of particle physics can explain most measurements of elementary particle properties and interactions performed to date. However, it does not naturally explain the relatively light Higgs boson mass or the existence of small neutrino masses, and has no explanation for the dark matter observed in the universe. Many extensions to the standard model have been proposed to attempt to address these questions, and several predict the existence of heavy charged gauge bosons, usually referred to as W' bosons. The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is the largest and most powerful particle accelerator in the world and offers the opportunity to search for W' bosons using the CMS experiment, a large multi-purpose particle detector. Results are presented from a search for a W' boson produced in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy sqrt(s)=8 TeV and decaying into a top and a bottom quark, using a dataset collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb^-1. Various models of W' boson production are studied by allowing for an arbitrary combination of left- and right-handed fermionic couplings. The analysis is based on the detection of events with an electron or muon, jets and missing transverse energy in the final state. No evidence for W' boson production is found and 95% confidence level upper limits are obtained on the production cross section for several mass hypotheses and compared to theoretical predictions. For W' bosons with purely right-handed couplings, and for those with left-handed couplings when ignoring interference effects, the observed 95% confidence level limit on the W' boson mass is M(W')>2.05 TeV. These are the most stringent limits obtained to date in this channel.

abstract: Cosmology, carrying imprints from the entire history of the universe, has emerged as a precise observational science over the past 30 years. It can probe physics beyond the Standard Model at energy scales much higher than the weak scale. This thesis reports on some important probes of beyond standard model physics derived in a cosmological setting - (I) It is shown that primordial gravitational waves left over from inflation carry unique detectable CMB signatures for neutrino masses, axions and any other relativistic species that may have been present. (II) Higgs Inflation, the most popular and compelling inflation model with a higgs boson is studied next and it is shown that quantum effects have so far been incorrectly incorporated. A spurious gauge ambiguity arising from quantum effects enters the canonical prediction for observables in Higgs Inflation that must be addressed. (III) A new novel mechanism for generating the observed baryon asymmetry of the universe via decaying gravitinos is proposed. If the Supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking scale is high, then in the presence of R-parity violation, gravitinos can successfully reproduce the baryon asymmetry and evade all low energy constraints. (IV) The final chapter reports on a new completely general analysis of simplified models used in direct detection of dark matter. This is useful to explore what high energy physics constraints can be obtained from direct detection experiments. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Physics 2015

abstract: The identity and origin of dark matter is one of the more elusive mysteries in the fields of particle physics and cosmology. In the near future, direct dark matter detectors will offer a chance at observing dark matter non-gravitationally for the first time. In this thesis, formalisms are developed to analyze direct detection experiments and to quantify the extent to which properties of the dark matter can be determined. A range of non-standard assumptions about the dark matter are considered, including inelastic scattering, isospin violation and momentum dependent scattering. Bayesian inference is applied to realistic detector configurations to evaluate parameter estimation and model selection ability. A complete set of simplified models for spin-0, spin-1/2 and spin-1 dark matter candidates are formulated. The corresponding non-relativistic operators are found, and are used to derive observational signals for the simplified models. The ability to discern these simplified models with direct detection experiments is demonstrated. In the near future direct dark matter detectors will be sensitive to coherent neutrino scattering, which will limit the discovery potential of these experiments. It was found that eleven of the fourteen non-relativistic operators considered produce signals distinct from coherent scattering, and thus the neutrino background does not greatly affect the discovery potential in these cases. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Physics 2016