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The available information about strange excited mesons is limited and most of the observed states have been reported but not confirmed. While the low mass region (1.0 - 1.5 GeV) has been extensively studied in the past and states such as the K1(1270), K1(1400), and K*(1410) have been confirmed by a handful of experiments, little is known about the spin-parity structure of resonances in the higher K+ π+ π- mass region (1.5-2.0 GeV). Past experiments have used hadron beams to gain access to the K+ π+ π- system, and have provided extensive information about strange states that made mapping their spectrum possible. Except for the K*(892), none of the excited strange states has been photoproduced before. We perform a partial wave analysis on a photoproduced K+ π+ π- system produced off a Λ baryon using the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. Using a photon beam incident of a liquid hydrogen target, we are able to reconstruct 16K events of the γ p -> Λ K+ π+ π- topology. Results from initial data selection confirmed the dominance of two decay modes for a K+ π+ π- resonance: the K*(892)π+ and the ρ(770)K+. A PWA was carried out in the helicity formalism using the reflectivity basis in the isobar model to parametrize the decay amplitudes of the resonances. Resonating structures are found in the 1+S wave primarily coupling to K*(892)π+ with a mass of 1.35 GeV/c2 and to ρ(770)K with a lower mass structure around 1.33 GeV/c2 and a higher mass resonance around 1.73 GeV/c2. The 1-P also exhibited a significant resonating behavior with a mass of 1.43 GeV/c2 coupling primarily to the K*(892)π+ decay mode. Also observed, an enhancement around 1.49 GeV/c2 in the 2+D wave strongly coupling to K*2 (1430)π+, and an enhancement in the 2-S wave around 1.76 GeV/c2 coupling primarily to K*2 (1430)π+. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Physics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester 2016. / April 11, 2016. / Data Analysis, Hadrons, KPiPi, Particle Physics, Photoproduction, PWA / Includes bibliographical references. / Paul Eugenio, Professor Directing Dissertation; James Justus, University Representative; Volker Crede, Committee Member; Simon Capstick, Committee Member; Alexander Ostrovidov, Committee Member; Horst Wahl, Committee Member.

We calculate matrix elements for kaon to two pion decays in the Delta I = 3/2 channel using lattice gauge theory simulations. From these we can extract the decay amplitude A2, for which the real part is related to the decay rate and can be compared to the experimental result Re(A2) = 1.484 x 10^(-8) GeV, and for which the imaginary part is related to direct charge-parity violation in the neutral kaon system. We report the results of one simulation with nearly physical particle masses and kinematics, specifically mK = 509.0(9.1) MeV, mPi = 142.8(2.5) MeV, and EPiPi = 485.7(8.0) MeV. This simulation was performed on RBC/UKQCD 32^3 x 64, Ls = 32 lattices, using 2+1 dynamical flavors of domain wall fermions and a Dislocation Suppressing Determinant Ratio plus Iwasaki gauge action, and with an inverse lattice spacing a^(-1) = 1.373(24) GeV so that the spatial extent of the lattice is 4.60 fm and mPi*L = 3.3. We find that Re(A2) = 1.461(87)stat(200)sys x 10^(-8) GeV, in good agreement with the experimental value. We also find Im(A2) = -8.67(45)stat(1.95)sys x 10^(-13) GeV, and Im(A2)/Re(A2) = -5.93(27)stat(1.42)sys x 10^(-5), however the value of Im(A2) depends on a rough hypothesis for some of the renormalization constants which have not yet been calculated, and thus we quote a large systematic error. We also report the results of a simulation involving a variety of kaon and pion masses and momenta, which was conducted in order to study the dependence of the decay amplitude on particle masses and kinematics, and to study the effect of not having exactly physical masses and kinematics in the first simulation. The use of the quenched approximation and smaller spatial volume in this second simulation allowed for multiple masses to be simulated in a reasonable amount of time, but introduced an uncontrolled approximation and forced us to use pion masses a bit larger than the phys- ical mass. The study was conducted on 24^3 x 64, Ls = 16 lattices, with the quenched Doubly Blocked Wilson 2 gauge action, and an inverse lattice spacing of a^(-1) = 1.31(2) GeV. We find that an extrapolation to physical masses and kinematics yields values Re(A2) = 2.25(18)stat x 10^(-8) GeV and Im(A2) = -13.44(84)stat x 10^(-13) GeV. These results are significantly larger than those of the full dynamical simulation and of experiment. We attribute this mainly to the an inaccurate determination of the lattice spacing a using the rho mass, since it comes in as a^(-3) in the calculation of A2. Finally, a third simulation is performed with 2+1 dynamical flavors of domain wall fermions on a finer 32^3 x 64, Ls = 16 lattice, but only with pions that have nearly zero momentum. It, and the quenched simulation, are used mainly to estimate the systematic error in the first simulation, which is taken as the final result.

This dissertation describes a search for resonant WW and WZ production in the lvjj decay channel using 4.701 fb-1 of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV LHC collision data collected by the ATLAS detector. Events with a single charged lepton, at least two jets and missing transverse energy are analyzed and no significant deviation from the Standard Model prediction is observed. Upper limits on the production cross section are interpreted as lower limits on the mass of a resonance and are derived assuming two warped extra-dimension production modes: the original Randall-Sundrum (RS1) model and the more recent "bulk" Randal-Sundrum (Bulk RS) model. The mass range for both models is excluded at 95% CL with a lower mass limit for an RS1 graviton of 936 GeV and 714 GeV for the Bulk RS graviton.

This dissertation presents results from a search for reactor antineutrinoₑ flavor oscillations using the Double Chooz Far Detector. The search was performed by observing the rate and energy spectrum of antineutrinoₑ interacting via Inverse Beta Decay in a Gd-doped liquid scintillator detector, and comparing the observation to an expectation based on a prediction of the emitted reactor flux. The Columbia University neutrino group was instrumental in construction of the Double Chooz Outer Veto, as well as the analysis efforts leading to two oscillation measurement results. The most recent analysis is presented herein, focusing on 251.27 days of data (or 33.71 GW-ton-years of exposure). In these data, 8249 IBD candidates were observed, compared to a signal+background prediction of 8936.8. A fit to a two-neutrino oscillation model considering event rate, spectral shape, and time yields a best-fit value of sin² (2θ₁₃) = 0.109 ± 0.030 (stat.) ± 0.025 (syst.) at Δm 2/31 = 2.32 × 10⁻³ eV², with χ²_RS/d.o.f. = 42.1/35. A frequentist method deems the null-oscillation hypothesis excluded by the data at 99.8% C.L., or 2.9σ. These results are in agreement with the measurements of other modern reactor antineutrinoₑ experiments.

We report our recent development in algorithms and progress in measurements in lattice QCD. The algorithmic development includes the forecasted force gradient integrator, and further theoretical development and implementation of the Möbius domain wall fermions. These new technologies make it practical to simulate large 48^3*96 and 64^3*128 lattice ensembles with (5.5fm)^3 boxes and 140MeV pion. The calculation was performed using the Möbius domain wall fermions and the Iwasaki gauge action. Simulated directly at physical quark masses, these ensembles are of great value for our ongoing and future lattice measurement projects.With the help of measurement techniques such as the eigCG algorithm and the all mode averaging method, we perform a direct, precise lattice calculation of the semileptonic kaon decay K→πlν using these newly generated high quality lattice ensembles. Our main result is the form factor f^+_{Kπ}(q^2) evaluated directly at zero momentum transfer q^2=0. Free of various systematic errors, this new result can be used to determine the CKM matrix element Vus to a very high precision when combined with experimental input. The calculation also provides results for various low energy strong interaction constants such as the pseudoscalar decay constants f_K and f_π, and the neutral kaon mixing matrix element B_K. These calculations are naturally performed by reusing the propagators calculated for the kaon semileptonic decay mentioned above. So they come with no or very low additional cost. The results allow us to also determine these important low energy constants on the lattice to unprecedented accuracy.

We report our recent development in algorithms and progress in measurements in lattice QCD. The algorithmic development includes the forecasted force gradient integrator, and further theoretical development and implementation of the Möbius domain wall fermions. These new technologies make it practical to simulate large 48^3*96 and 64^3*128 lattice ensembles with (5.5fm)^3 boxes and 140MeV pion. The calculation was performed using the Möbius domain wall fermions and the Iwasaki gauge action. Simulated directly at physical quark masses, these ensembles are of great value for our ongoing and future lattice measurement projects. With the help of measurement techniques such as the eigCG algorithm and the all mode averaging method, we perform a direct, precise lattice calculation of the semileptonic kaon decay K→πlν using these newly generated high quality lattice ensembles. Our main result is the form factor f^+_{Kπ}(q^2) evaluated directly at zero momentum transfer q^2=0. Free of various systematic errors, this new result can be used to determine the CKM matrix element Vus to a very high precision when combined with experimental input. The calculation also provides results for various low energy strong interaction constants such as the pseudoscalar decay constants f_K and f_π, and the neutral kaon mixing matrix element B_K. These calculations are naturally performed by reusing the propagators calculated for the kaon semileptonic decay mentioned above. So they come with no or very low additional cost. The results allow us to also determine these important low energy constants on the lattice to unprecedented accuracy.

A search for short baseline muon antineutrino disappearance with the SciBooNE and MiniBooNE experiments at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois is presented. Short baseline muon antineutrino disappearance measurements help constrain sterile neutrino models. The two detectors observe muon antineutrinos from the same beam, therefore the combined analysis of their data sets serves to partially constrain some of the flux and cross section uncertainties. A likelihood ratio method was used to set a 90% confidence level upper limit on muon antineutrino disappearance that dramatically improves upon prior sterile neutrino oscillation limits in the Δm^2=0.1-100 eV^2 region.

A measurement of the jet multiplicity in di-leptonically decaying ttbar events (i.e. ttbar → (ee, μμ, eμ) + missing transverse momentum + jets) is presented, using 4.66 fb -1 of data collected from √ s = 7 TeV pp collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. In order to mitigate the effects of systematic uncertainties associated with jet energy measurements, a measurement of the ratio of the number of di-lepton ttbar events with N + 2 jets to Z → ℓ ℓ + N jet events is also determined. The results are unfolded for detector effects and compared to the particle-level predictions of several Monte Carlo generators, showing generally good agreement.

This dissertation describes a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in Z+photon channel with the ATLAS detector at the LHC using 4.6 fb⁻¹ of proton-proton collisions at center of mass energy 7 TeV in 2011 and 20.7 fb⁻¹ of proton-proton collisions at center of mass energy 8 TeV in 2012. The distribution of the mass difference between M_Zphoton and M_Z is compared to the Standard Model (SM) background expectations. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed and the upper limits on the signal strength μ of a Higgs boson with a mass between 120 and 150 GeV are derived. The expected exclusion limits at 95% confidence level range between 7.3 and 22.3 times the predicted Standard Model cross section. The observed exclusion limits range between 5.3 and 38.7 times the Standard Model cross section. For a Higgs boson with mass of 125.5 GeV, the expected and observed limits are 13.2 and 17.0 times the Standard Model respectively.