Understanding the origin or Electroweak symmetry breaking within the Standard Model was a key motivation for the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment at CERN. This thesis presents a search for evidence of Higgs boson production in the 4.7 fb−1 of collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the ATLAS detector during 2011. This search is focused on signal events in which a Higgs boson is produced in the mass range 100 < mH < 180 GeV/c2 and subsequently decays to a pair of W bosons or a pair of tau leptons to final states with one hadronically decaying tau lepton and one light lepton. After an event selection criteria has been applied, the number of events in this data sample is consistent with the total background estimate and an upper limit is placed on the SM Higgs boson production rate at 95% confidence level. In addition, the prospects for measuring the SM Higgs coupling strength to tau leptons with the associated Higgs production channels and the full LHC dataset are also presented.

The proposed neutrino factory, a facility for precision measurements of neutrino oscillations, requires directional neutrino beams to reach the required sensitivities. Among the few sources of such beams is the decay of muons travelling at relativistic speeds, therefore an intense source of muons and subsequent rapid acceleration must be designed so they can reach the required energy before decaying. This thesis considers several stages in this process: pions are produced from a proton beam hitting a target and pion yield optima are determined as a function of target design parameters and the proton energy. Issues related to producing the original proton beam are also discussed. The pions decay to a beam of muons, confined by a channel of solenoids and other components known as the muon front end. A design for this is found that meets the requirement of 10^21 muons per operational year [1]. The computer code MARS15 [2] is used to simulate the target, with benchmarks against GEANT4 [3] and initial results from the HARP experiment [4]. The author's code Muon1 [5] is used for muon tracking, with its techniques also explained in the thesis. To find the highest-yielding arrangement of magnets and accelerating components from the target onwards, Muon1 incorporates an optimisation feature where almost all parameters of the beamline can be varied. This produces a high-dimensionality search space where the best muon yield is sought using a genetic algorithm. As each individual evaluation of a design is itself a time-consuming simulation with tens of thousands of particles, the code has been deployed as a distributed computing project that is able to perform millions of simulations per optimisation. [1] "GROUP REPORT: Physics at a Neutrino Factory", C. Albright et al. (Eds. S. Geer and H. Schellman), Report to the Fermilab Directorate, FERMILAB-FN-692, hep-ex/0008064 (2000). [2] "The MARS Code System" version 15.07, by N.V. Mokhov, available from http://www-ap.fnal.gov/MARS/ [3] "GEANT4 - a simulation toolkit", S. Agostinelli et al., Nuclear Instruments and Methods A 506, pp.250-303 (2003), available from http://geant4.web.cern.ch/geant4/ [4] "Status and prospects of the HARP experiment", M. Ellis, J. Phys. G 29, pp.1613-1620 (2003). [5] Muon1 Distributed Particle Accelerator Design project website, http://stephenbrooks.org/muon1

One of the main motivating factors for the construction of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was the search for the Higgs boson, postulated to explain the origin of fundamental gauge boson masses. This thesis presents the results of the first search for the Higgs boson at the LHC, using 35 pb^−1 of proton-proton collision data with a centre of mass energy of 7 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment throughout 2010. The search is performed in the H -> WW channel, since the branching ratio for Higgs boson decays to W bosons is large for a wide range of Higgs boson masses. Two different search methods are presented: a straightforward cut-based method and a method using a matrix-element-based discriminant to provide additional separation between signal and background. The matrix element method is shown to give better expected sensitivity at all Higgs boson masses. Using these methods, a SM-like Higgs boson with a mass of 160 GeV with a production rate of 1.2 times the SM rate is excluded at 95% Confidence Level and limits are placed on the production rate of the SM Higgs boson in the range of masses from 120 < mH < 200 GeV. In addition, a measurement of the SM WW cross section is performed. It is essential to understand this channel since it is the major background to the H -> WW search. SM WW production is also sensitive to new physics processes, which would enhance its cross section. The SM WW cross section is measured to be σ(WW) = 40+20−16(stat.)±7(syst.) pb, which is consistent with the NLO SM expectation of 46 ± 3 pb.

The ATLAS experiment is used to observe the √s=7 TeV proton-proton collisions produced by the LHC at CERN. This gives an unprecedented opportunity to search for physics beyond the Standard Model at hitherto unexplored kinematic regimes. Supersymmetry (SUSY) provides interesting solutions to a variety of theoretical problems that may be encountered in the Standard Model at high energy scales, while providing signatures that may be observed at the LHC. However, in order to produce a search that is sensitive to SUSY it is vital to understand how the physics that has been discovered to date may produce signatures that mimic those expected from SUSY. Statistical models are constructed using both Monte Carlo and data-driven predictions of various background processes. The expectations are compared to the observed data for selections containing one electron or muon, each in association with jets and missing transverse momentum. Kinematic variable shapes, in the form of histograms, are used to enhance the sensitivity of the search. Squark and gluino masses in a MSUGRA SUSY model are excluded up to 1200 GeV, while gluino masses up to 900 GeV are excluded in a simplified SUSY model. Model-independent limits are also set, excluding theoretical models with efficiency times cross section above 1 fb.

T2K is a long-baseline accelerator neutrino oscillation experiment using the high-intensity ν_μ beam produced at J-PARC. Sitting 295 km away, the giant Super-Kamiokande detector, a 50 kt water tank instrumented with 11,129 photosensitive detectors, sees a narrow band beam peaked at 600 MeV. The baseline to energy ratio is finely tuned for studying neutrino oscillations at the atmospheric neutrino squared-mass splitting. The beam is also sampled 280m downstream of the neutrino production target by a series of finely segmented solid scintillator and time projection chamber detectors. Observing changes in the neutrino beam between the two detectors allows oscillation parameters to be accurately extracted. A ν_μ-disappearance analysis was performed on the combined T2K Run 1+2+3+4 dataset, corresponding to integrated J-PARC neutrino beam exposure of 6.57x10²⁰ POT, in a framework of three active neutrino flavour oscillations including matter effects in constant-density matter. The observed reconstructed energy spectrum of 1 μ-like ring events was fitted, and separate fits were made for the normal and the inverted mass hierarchies.

The CP violating phase β^J/ψφ_s is measured in decays of B⁰_s → J/ψφ. This measurement uses 5.2 fb^-1 of data collected in √s = 1.96 TeV p‾p collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with the CDF Run-II detector. CP violation in the B⁰_s-‾B⁰_sbar system is predicted to be very small in the Standard Model. However, several theories beyond the Standard Model allow enhancements to this quantity by heavier, New Physics particles entering second order weak mixing box diagrams. Previous measurements have hinted at a deviation from the Standard Model expectation value for β^J/ψφ_s with a significance of approximately 2σ. The measurement described in this thesis uses the highest statistics sample available to date in the B⁰_s → J/ψφ decay channel, where J/ψ → μ⁺ μ^- and φ → K⁺K^-. Furthermore, it contains several improvements over previous analyses, such as enhanced signal selection, fully calibrated particle ID and flavour tagging, and the inclusion of an additional decay component in the likelihood function. The added decay component considers S-wave states of KK pairs in the B⁰_s → J/ψK⁺K^- channel. The results are presented as 2-dimensional frequentist confidence regions for β^J/ψφ<sub >s</sub> and ΔΓ (the width difference between the B⁰_s mass eigenstates), and as a confidence interval for β^J/ψφ_s of [0.02,0.52] U [1.08, 1.55] at the 68% confidence level. The measurement of the CP violating phase obtained in this thesis is complemented by the world's most precise measurement of the lifetime τ_s = 1.53 ± 0.025 (stat.) ± 0.012 (syst.) ps and decay width difference ΔΓ = 0.075 ± 0 .035 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.) ps⁻¹ of the B⁰_s meson, with the assumption of no CP violation.

Siemens Corporate Technology New Technology Fields Healthcare &amp; Technology Concepts (CT NTF HTC) have proposed a novel electrostatic accelerator for nuclear medicine which aims at gradients of up to 10 MV m^-1. With beam currents of 100 &mu;A at &asymp;10 MeV it might replace cyclotrons whilst being simpler, more reliable and more cost effective. The accelerator concept consists of concentric hemispherical metallic shells spaced by insulators and placed in a vacuum system. The shells are interconnected by high voltage diodes so that they form a voltage multiplier with its highest voltage in its centre. Particle beams can be accelerated towards the centre through a set of holes in the shells. In tandem mode, with a stripper in the centre and a negative ion source as injector, beams of twice the centre voltage can be achieved. This thesis presents several commissioning milestones of a test system for the novel electrostatic accelerator, thus validating the concept for commercial applications. An inter shell insulator has been designed and successfully tested to fields of 12 MV m^-1. A diode protection concept has been devised and validated in realistic breakdown scenarios. An AC drive system including control software has been developed, delivering a sinusoidal input voltage of up to 140 kV peak to peak at 80 kHz. An automatic process to carefully commission the high voltage system in vacuum has been created, implemented in a control system and successfully operated. A 4-shell prototype with these components has been successfully tested with achieved gradients of up to 5.5 MV m^-1. A negative hydrogen ion source has been constructed, commissioned and characterised with a purposely developed wire grid. Beam currents beyond 200 &mu;A have been achieved. Beam transport from the ion source through the 7-shell system has been demonstrated in simulations which are based on experimental data from the ion source characterisation. A stripper system has been designed and constructed.

This thesis describes two pieces of work. The first is a study of the resolution of the LHCb vertex locator throughout Run 1. The second comprises analyses to measure the charm mixing and CP violation observables A_{Gamma} and y_{CP}.An estimate of the resolution of the LHCb vertex locator is required for use in the track fits. A method to measure the resolution with collision data has been developed and tested. The performance of the sub-detector throughout Run 1 of the LHC has been assessed. A significant degrading of the resolution has been seen. The effects of this on the track reconstruction has been examined with little change in the measured quantities being observed. The measurement of indirect CP violation in neutral D meson transitions has been measured through the observables A_{Gamma} and y_{CP}, using 1fb^{-1} of pp collisions with a centre of mass energy 7TeV, collected by the LHCb detector in 2011.A_{Gamma} describes the CP asymmetry of the lifetime of the D^0 decaying to a CP eigenstate (KK or pipi). The analysis documented here yields A_{Gamma} = (-0.17+-0.54)x10^{-3} when the measurements are combined. This is the world's best measurement and represented a factor of four improvement over the previous best result. The observable y_{CP} compares the effective lifetimes of the Cabibbo favoured decay D^0→Kpi and the transition to a CP eigenstate (KK or pipi). The unblinded result obtained in this document, averaged over both final states is y_{CP} = (5.61+-1.56)x10^{-3}. This result is commensurate with the world average central value within 1.25 standard deviations and has significance of 3.6 standard deviations relative to zero.

The EDELWEISS experiment is one of the dark matter direct detection experiments. It aims to detect WIMP interactions using an array of cryogenic germanium detectors. In the previous EDELWEISS-II phase, the cables and connectors used have been identified as a major source of neutron background in the experiment, which means that further effort aimed at better WIMP-nucleon interaction detection sensitivity requires a new, different cold cabling solution connecting the detectors to the front-end electronics. Motivated by this, a new two-section cold cabling system based on semi-flexible laminated copper and stainless steel cables has been developed for the EDELWEISS- III phase at Oxford. Batches of prototypes have been tested first in a cryostat at Oxford as part of a phonon-scintillation detector module, and then at the LSM underground laboratory in several EDELWEISS-III commissioning runs. Following that, a final set of cabling has been produced and installed in the EDELWEISS-III setup, which is currently conducting a science run aiming to improve its sensitivity reach compared to the previous results. This new cold cabling system has shown similar electrical performance as the previous coaxial cabling when comparing different cold cabling configurations in a commissioning run at LSM. Also, its background contribution is within the EDELWEISS-III requirements, according to radioactivity level tests and Monte Carlo simulations. In addition, the assembled connectors have allowed hundreds of signal tracks to be installed within a few days and the low material and space budget has made the cables compatible with the compact cryostat design. Besides reading out detectors for dark matter detection, prototypes of this cabling solution for a wider application range have also been produced at Oxford. The next generation dark matter direct detection experiments aim to achieve detection sensitivity better by a few orders of magnitude. This requires a target mass at tonne-scale, which converts to thousands of cryogenic detectors. Cryogenic phonon-scintillation detectors used in current dark matter searches can provide excellent performance but they usually require individual tuning and attention, making operation in large-scale experiments difficult. It is also technically challenging to stably produce such detectors in large quantity. Therefore, a scalable, robust novel detector concept for cryogenic phonon- scintillation detectors to be used in future rare event search experiments has been developed in this work. This detector module consists of a phonon detector based on a CaMoO4 scintillating crystal as the target with an attached NTD-Ge sensor as the thermometer, and a light detector based on a low-temperature PMT. To provide the high voltage necessary for PMT operation while ensuring the detector module can be cooled down and that the performance of the phonon detector is unaffected, a high voltage supply system based on a Cockcroft-Walton generator (CWG), a transformer and a small AC input has been designed and tested in the cryostat. The laminated cabling system is chosen for reading out the phonon channel and connecting the CWG and the PMT. A test run has demonstrated that, the high voltage can be provided to the PMT without causing a problem to the detector operation, and it is feasible to operate the low-temperature PMT at a temperature as low as 17 mK. Testing with a cobalt-57 gamma source, the phonon detector and the light detector have achieved resolutions of 1.07 keV and 34.2 keV for the 122.06 keV peak respectively. This is close to the performance of detectors used in the current dark matter direct searches, proving this detector concept can be applied to future large-scale dark matter direct detection experiments and other rare event searches. Using the light channel in this detector setup, the scintillation properties of CaMoO4 has been studied. In this work, the experimental data of its scintillation decay time constant has been extended from the previous 7 K to milli-Kelvin temperatures. The data are interpreted using a three-level model, confirming the existence of a metastable emission level in CaMoO4, and giving various parameters of its emission centre. This suggests that the work related to producing a high voltage supply and demonstrating the excellent performance of a low-temperature PMT could also be attractive to scintillator studies at cryogenic temperatures.

SNO+ is a liquid scintillator experiment whose physics goals include measurements of solar neutrinos, reactor anti-neutrinos, geo neutrinos and double beta decay. During an initial water phase, it will also search for invisible modes of nucleon decay. This thesis investigates methods of improving the detector's sensitivity to the baryon and lepton violating processes of neutrinoless double beta decay and invisible nucleon decay. It does this through an improved scintillator model, allowing the sensitivity of the detector with different loading techniques to be evaluated, through a new background rejection technique, capable of increasing the active volume of the detector, and with the development of improved position fitters, achieving resolutions of approximately 10 cm in scintillator and 25 cm in water. The sensitivity of SNO+ to invisible modes of nucleon decay is explored, predicting, after one month of data, a limit of t > 1.38 x 10³⁰ years on the decay of neutrons and of t > 1.57 x 10³⁰ years on the decay of protons.