A search for photons originating in the decay of a neutral long-lived particle produced in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented. The search was performed in the diphoton plus missing transverse energy final state, using the full data sample of 4.8 fb-1 of 7 TeV proton-proton collisions collected in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploits the capabilities of the ATLAS electromagnetic calorimeter to make precise measurements of the flight direction of photons, and utilizes the excellent time resolution of the calorimeter as an independent cross-check of the results. The search was conducted in the context of Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking models, where the lightest neutralino is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and has a finite lifetime. In the family of models investigated, supersymmetric particles are produced in pairs due to R-parity conservation, eventually decaying to a pair of neutralinos, each subsequently decaying to a photon and a gravitino. The gravitinos escape the detector, giving rise to missing energy, while the photons can appear not to originate from the primary vertex of the event, and are measured with a delay with respect to the collision time. No excess was observed above the background expected from Standard Model processes. The results were used to set exclusion limits at 95% CL in the two-dimensional parameter space defined by the supersymmetry breaking scale and the lifetime of the lightest neutralino.

We present a search for electron antineutrino disappearance at the Chooz nuclear power plant in Chooz, France. Using the Double Chooz far detector and 101.5 days of detector run time, we measure sin^2(2θ(subscript 13)) = 0.086 ± 0.041 (stat.) ± 0.030 (syst.) from a rate and shape fit. A combined analysis of T2K and Double Chooz data finds that sin^2(2θ(subscript 13)) = 0 is excluded at the 3σ level.

A vacuum, a classically stable state, can decay to another vacuum by virtue of quantum tunneling. Although vacuum decay is an interesting topic itself in field theory, when it combines with gravity, it has wider applications and plays an essential role to understand the very early universe. The semi-classical solution of vacuum decay is well-described by the WKB approximation both in flat space and in curved space. Meanwhile, if we consider the configuration space of fields, we encounter many kinds of problems related with gravitational fields since the mode spectrum in curved space turns out to have an infinite number of negative modes in a de Sitter background. Despite of infinitely many negative modes, the regime in the weak gravity limit can be smoothly connected to flat space. To understand this, I discuss the nature of vacuum decay and various topics about negative modes in this thesis.

The K_L-K_S mass difference is a promising quantity to reveal new phenomena which lie outside the standard model. A state-of-art perturbation theory calculation has be en performed at next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) and a 40% error is quoted in the final result. We develop and demonstrate non-perturbative techniques needed to calculate the K_L-K_S mass difference, ΔM_K, in lattice QCD and carry out exploratory calculations. The calculations are performed on a 2+1 flavor, domain wall fermion, 16³ x 32 ensemble with a 421 Mev pion and a 24³ x 64 lattice ensemble with a 329 MeV pion. In the $16^3$ lattice calculation, we drop the double penguin diagrams and the disconnected diagrams. The short distance part of the mass difference in a 2+1 flavor calculation contains a quadratic divergence cut off by the lattice spacing. Here, this quadratic divergence is eliminated through the Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani (GIM) mechanism by introducing a quenched charm quark. We obtain a mass difference ΔM_K which ranges from 6.58(30) x 10⁻¹² MeV to 11.89(81) x 10⁻¹² MeV for kaon masses varying from 563 MeV to 839 MeV. On the 24³ lattice, we include all the diagrams and perform a full calculation. Our result is for a case of unphysical kinematics with pion, kaon and charmed quark masses of 330, 575 and 949 MeV respectively. We obtain ΔM_K=3.19(41)(96) x 10⁻¹² MeV, quite similar to the experimental value. Here the first error is statistical and the second is an estimate of the systematic discretization error. An interesting aspect of this calculation is the importance of the disconnected diagrams, a dramatic failure of the OZI rule.

A search for undiscovered particles decaying into top-antitop quark pairs produced in proton-proton collisions with the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider utilizing 20.3 fb$^-1$ of data collected at $\sqrt{s}=8$ \tev\ center-of-mass energy during the 2012 data taking period is presented. The invariant mass spectrum of events containing multiple jets, exactly one lepton, and missing transverse energy and which are consistent with the decay of a top-antitop quark pair is studied and found to be consistent with that predicted by the Standard Model. Upper limits on the production cross section times branching ratio of several benchmark signal models are set at a 95\% confidence level.

This thesis presents complementary measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameter sin²2θ₁₃ made by observing the electron antineutrino flux from two nuclear reactors in Chooz, France. Antineutrinos are identified through both products of the inverse beta decay interaction, bar νₑ + p → e⁺ + n, in a high-precision liquid scintillator detector located approximately 1 km from the reactors. The most sensitive signal channel involves neutron captures by a gadolinium dopant, while a search for neutron captures on hydrogen provides a high-statistics validation. In both channels, the value of sin²2θ₁₃ is revealed by an energy- and reactor power-dependent deficit of antineutrino-like events, compared to a reactor simulation. All analyses produce results consistent with one another and with findings of other experiments. These datasets also expose features of the antineutrino spectrum not predicted in reactor flux models. Data from the newly inaugurated near detector, anticipated in the final part of this thesis, holds unique potential to clarify these features, pursue signals from sterile neutrinos, and contribute to global knowledge of three-neutrino mixing.

A search for squarks and gluinos in all hadronic final states in \sqrt(s) = 13 TeV proton-proton collisions using an integrated luminosity of 13.3 fb^-1 collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC is presented. The search is the first to use Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction, a technique to impose a particular decay tree interpretation on events. The decay tree is resolved using jigsaw rules, which define boosts between the relevant reference frames to define an uncorrelated basis of variables to describe the decay. The Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction variables are used to define a set of selections with sensitivity to pair produced squarks and gluinos. No excess is observed over the Standard Model background. Results are interpreted in simplified models where squarks and gluinos are pair produced and decay to jets and the lightest supersymmetric particle. These limits substantially extend the region of supersymmetric phase space excluded by previous searches.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI/Dissertation Abstracts International.

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