This thesis presents work towards the first measurement of the mass of the W boson (m_W) at ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider using √s = 7 TeV collision data taken in 2011. The electron energy calibration is presented, including a detailed study of the linearity of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter. Separately, the measurement of the W boson recoil is calibrated using Z boson events. Recoil corrections for the underlying event, pileup, recoil magnitude resolution, recoil angular resolution and recoil response mismodelling are determined, with statistical uncertainties on these corrections corresponding to an estimated uncertainty on m_W of 3.9 MeV. The corrections for calorimeter non-linearity and recoil modelling improve the description of the data, though systematic biases remain. To achieve a precision commensurate with the statistics of the data, these biases will need to be understood.

Angular distributions of jet pairs (dijets) produced in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of- mass energy √s = 7 TeV have been studied with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using the full 2011 data set with an integrated luminosity of 4.8 fb−1, and reaching dijet masses up to 4.5 TeV. All angular distributions are consistent with QCD predictions. Analysis of the dijet angular distribution, using a novel technique simultaneously employing the dijet mass, is employed. This analysis is sensitive to both resonant new physics and phenomena with a slow-onset in mass. Using this technique, new exclusion limits have been set at 95% credibility level for several hypotheses of physics beyond the standard model including: quantum gravity scales, with 6 extra dimensions, below 4.11 TeV, quark contact interactions below a compositeness scale of 7.6 TeV, and excited quarks with a mass below 2.75 TeV. In a large and complex scientific experiment, such as ATLAS, the collection, management and usability of coherent data and metadata is a challenging operation. The availability of these data to physicists within the experiment is essential to all analysis efforts. A new web-based interface called “RunBrowser”, which makes ATLAS and LHC operations data available to the ATLAS Collaboration, is introduced.

Parton distribution functions (PDFs) provide a description of the quark and gluon content of the proton. They are important input into theoretical calculations of hadronic observables, and are obtained by fitting to a wide range of experimental data. The NNPDF approach to fitting PDFs provides a robust and reliable determination of their central values and uncertainties. The PDFs are modelled using neural networks, while the uncertainties are generated through the use of Monte Carlo replica datasets. In this thesis I provide an in depth description of development of the latest NNPDF determination: NNPDF3.0. A number of novel adaptations to the genetic algorithm and network structure are outlined and the results of tests as to their effectiveness are shown. Centrally, the use of closure tests, where artificial data is generated according to a known theory and used to perform a fit, has been instrumental in both the development and validation of the NNPDF3.0 approach. The results of these tests, which demonstrate the ability of our methodology to reproduce a known underlying law, are investigated in detail. Finally, results from the NNPDF3.0 PDF sets are presented. The parton distributions obtained are compared with results from other PDF collaborations, and PDFs fit to limited datasets are also discussed. Physical observables relevant for future collider runs are presented and compared to other determinations.

This thesis presents an analysis of the central exclusive production (CEP) of χ_c mesons in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, using data collected with the LHCb detector corresponding to an effective integrated luminosity of 126.3 ± 4.3 pb⁻¹. Candidate χ_c decays are reconstructed in the K⁺K⁻ and π⁺π⁻ final states, where the final state particles have pseudorapidities between 2.5 and 4.5. The products of the cross sections and branching fractions are measured as σ x B(χ_c0 → K⁺K⁻) = 28.0 ± 2.8 ± 13.9 pb, σ x B(χ_c0 → π⁺π⁻) = 20.3 ± 2.4 ± 8.1 pb, σ x B(χ_c2 → K⁺K⁻) < 12.1 pb, σ x B(χ_c2 → π⁺π⁻) < 10.5 pb, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic, and limits are set at the 95% confidence level. A major source of systematic uncertainty is the determination of the fraction of the selected data which is CEP rather than inelastic backgrounds. Also described is HERSCHEL, a new subdetector installed at LHCb during the first long shutdown of the LHC. This is a system of forward shower counters which will provide CEP analyses with event-by-event rejection of inelastic backgrounds. The pseudorapidity coverage and detection efficiency of HERSCHEL are determined using Monte Carlo simulations. The pseudorapidity coverage extends to |η&| ≥ 10 due to the showering of collision products at the aperture limit. With a photoelectron threshold yield of 0.2 times the yield in the mean minimum bias event, the detection efficiency for single diffractive events is predicted to be 89% in the forward direction and 91% in the backward direction.