For the first time, the Z0 boson angular distribution in the center-of-momentum frame is measured in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(S) = 7 TeV at the CERN LHC. The data sample, recorded with the CMS detector, corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 36 pb-1. Events in which there is a Z0 and at least one jet, with a jet transverse momentum threshold of 20 GeV and absolute jet rapidity less than 2.4, are selected for the analysis. Only the Z0’s muon decay channel is studied. Within experimental and theoretical uncertainties, the measured angular distribution is in agreement with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD predictions.

The search for the Higgs boson has been a cornerstone of the physics program at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva Switzerland. The ATLAS experiment successfully discovered the Higgs using the so-called ‘Golden Channels’ of H0 -> gamma gamma and H0 -> ZZ(∗) using data samples collected during the 2011 and 2012 run periods. In order to check if the discovered Higgs is consistent with purely Standard Model behaviour, it is necessary to further confirm the existence of the Higgs in each production mode and decay channel predicted by the Standard Model. For this dissertation, a search for the Higgs was conducted using the H0 -> b bbar decay channel, where the Higgs is produced by the inverse pair decay of two weak bosons exchanged by a scattered quark pair, also known as Vector Boson Fusion (VBF). This analysis uses data samples collected during the 2011 run period by the ATLAS detector totalling 4.2 /fb of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. No excess of events above background expectation is observed and 95% confidence level upper limits on the Standard Model Higgs cross section times branching ratio, sigma(VBF) x BR(H0 -> b bbar), are derived for Higgs masses in the range 115 < mH < 130 GeV. An observed 95% confidence level upper limit of 18.7 times the Standard Model cross section is obtained for a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV. / Graduate / 0798

The search potential of a Standard Model Higgs boson in the Vector Boson Fusion production mechanism with Higgs boson decaying to two leptons and two neutrinos via decay to two Z bosons with the ATLAS detector is investigated. The ATLAS detector is a general purpose detector in operation at CERN measuring proton-proton collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider. This channel has been shown to have high sensitivity at large Higgs mass, where large amounts of missing energy in the signal provide good discrimination over expected backgrounds. This work takes a first look at whether the sensitivity of this channel may be improved using the remnants of the vector boson fusion process to pro- vide extra discrimination, particularly at lower mass where sensitivity of the main analysis is reduced because of lower missing energy. Simulated data samples at centre of mass energy 7 Te V are used to derive signal significances over the mass range between 200-600 Ge V / c2. Because of varying signal properties with mass, a low and a high mass event selection were developed and optimized. A comparison between simulated and real data (collected in 2010) is made of variables used in the analysis and the effect of pileup levels corresponding to those in the 2010 data is investigated. Possible methods to estimate some of the main backgrounds to this search are described and discussed. The impact • of important theoretical and detector related systematics are taken into account. Final results are presented in the form of 95 % Confidence Level exclusion limits on the signal cross section relative to the SM prediction as a function of Higgs boson mass, based on an integrated luminosity of 33.4 pb -1 of data collected during 2010.

The generation of vector boson mass via the Higgs mechanism in the Standard Model has been confirmed by the 2012 discovery of a candidate Higgs boson in the H&rarr;WW, H&rarr;ZZ, and H&rarr;&gamma;&gamma; decay channels. In contrast, the Yukawa couplings hypothesized to provide the mass of fermions in the Standard Model have yet to be observed. The H&rarr;&tau;&tau; decay channel currently provides the best opportunity for observing these couplings. This thesis describes two separate but related searches for Higgs boson decays in the H→&tau;&tau; decay channel using proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector. The first analysis is a general search for all Higgs boson production mechanisms leading to a H&rarr;&tau;&tau; decay using 4.5 fb⁻¹ of 7 TeV and 20.3 fb⁻¹ of 8 TeV proton-proton collision data. A deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed with a significance of 4.5&sigma; for a hypothetical Higgs boson mass of m_H = 125 GeV — a strong indication of a H&rarr;&tau;&tau; signal. For the same mass point, the best fit value for the signal strength is found to be 1.43 ^&plus;0.43<sub style='position: relative; left: -2.4em;'>−0.37</sub> x the Standard Model expectation. The second analysis is a search for Higgs boson production in association with a vector boson using 20.3 fb⁻¹ of 8 TeV proton-proton collision data. Results in the Z_llH&rarr;_&tau;l&tau;h channel indicate limits of 9.14 x the Standard Model expectation for VH signal production at m_H = 125 GeV. In addition, two studies on enhancement of computing performance in the ATLAS trigger and data analysis pipeline are presented.

This paper presents an outline of the generation of mass for the massive Standard Model particles (fermions, $W^\pm$, $Z^0$) through electroweak symmetry breaking via the Higgs mechanism, and how the Higgs boson emerges from this framework. A Monte Carlo study was done on the decay $H\rightarrow\tau\tau$, with one leptonically and one hadronically decaying tau, with two different production channels for the $H$, gluon-gluon fusion (gg) and vector boson fusion (VBF), at $\sqrt s = 7\tev$ with a Higgs mass $m_H = 120\gev$. The kinematics of these two production channels were compared and it was found that the transverse momentum of muons produced in VBF were higher on average than those produced in gg. This differance was greater in muons originating from the leptonically decaying tau in the Higgs decay, than those produced by other processes in the underlying event. In the latter, however, the difference was still noticable. Jets were slightly more abundant in VBF than in gg, and were in VBF more distributed along the beam axis. The separation in pseudorapidity between the two jets with highest transverse momentum was found to be greater in VBF than in gg. An attempt to reconstruct the Higgs mass using Monte Carlo data run through a simulation of the ATLAS detector was done. The estimator used was the transverse mass of the system consisting of the visible part of the hadronically decaying tau, the lepton from the leptonically decaying tau and the total missing transvese energy. In gg the mean of the transvese mass distribution was found to be $89.26\gev$ with a root mean square uncertainty (RMS) of $23.86\gev$. In VBF the mean was found to be $85.57\gev$ with RMS $27.08\gev$.

One of the goals of the LHC is to test the existence of the Higgs Boson. This thesis presents a study of the potential to discover the Standard Model Higgs boson in the vector boson fusion (VBF) channel for the Higgs mass range 120-200 GeV/c2. The decay of Higgs bosons into WW* final state with both W-bosons decaying leptonically is considered. The main backgrounds are tt_+j and W+W-jj. This study, based on a full simulation of the CMS detector at the LHC, shows that a 5(Sigma) discovery can be done with an integrated luminosity of 12-72 fb-1 for 130-200 GeV/c2 Higgs bosons. Due to the uncertainties in the backgrounds, it is important to measure the backgrounds from data. This study shows that the major background can be measured directly to 7% with 30 fb-1. After discovering the Higgs boson mass using transverse mass template distributions is investigated in the VBF channel. The performance of the combined CMS electromagnetic and hadronic calorimeters (EB+HB) was measured at the H2 test beam at the CERN SPS during 2006 with various partivles in a large momentum range, 1-350 GeV/c. Another major contribution of this thesis is developing the method to optimize the energy reconstruction for the combined EB+HB system with which the corrected responses become 100% with 6% fluctuation and the stochastic resolution is improved from 111% to 94%.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre o espalhamento W+W+ e W&#8722;W&#8722; para os primeiros anos de tomada de dados do experimento CMS do LHC, no CERN. O processo de espalhamento de bósons vetoriais, dentre os quais se inclui o espalhamento WW, é um processo chave para elucidação do mecanismo de quebra de simetria eletrofraca. Previsões teóricas mostram que as características cinemáticas do espalhamento de bósons vetoriais na escala T e V de energia devem depender significativamente do mecanismo que quebra a simetria eletrofraca. Este processo será analisado com dois objetivos principais: estudar a viabilidade de medi-lo em altas energias no CMS, e mostrar a sua sensibilidade ao mecanismo da quebra de simetria eletrofraca. Esta sensibilidade será mostrada através da análise de duas amostras de eventos correspondentes a dois cenários distintos: o modelo padrão com a presença de um bóson de Higgs de massa 500 GeV e o modelo padrão sem a presença do bóson de Higgs. Estas amostras foram geradas com o gerador de eventos PHASE, cuja principal importância para o estudo do espalhamento de bósons vetoriais em altas energias e a sua capacidade de calcular o elemento de matriz completo em ordem dominante O(&#945;6). Para se analisar a viabilidade de se medir o espalhamento WW no CMS, foi feita uma simulação do detector utilizando as amostras dos processos de sinal e dos principais processos de fundo através do pacote de simulação rápida do CMS, o FAMOS. Os processos de fundo, WW+N jatos, WZ+N jatos, ZZ+N jatos, W+N jatos e tt+N jatos, foram estudados e suprimidos através de seleções de regiões cinemáticas. A análise dos dados mostra que a observação do espalhamento WW na fase inicial do LHC será muito difícil, sendo necessária uma luminosidade maior, além de aprimoramento da análise. / This work presents a study of W+W+ and W&#8722;W&#8722; scattering for the first years of the CMS experiment data-taking at LHC, CERN. Vector boson scattering, including WW, is a key processes for probing electroweak symmetry breaking. Theoretical predictions show that kinematics characteristics of vector boson scattering at T e V scale must strongly depend on the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. This process is analyzed with two main objectives: viability study of performing this measurement at CMS and show its dependence on the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. This dependence is shown through an analysis with two event samples corresponding to two distinct scenarios: the standard model with the presence of a 500 GeV massive Higgs boson and the standard model without presence of a Higgs boson. These samples were generated by the Monte-Carlo generator PHASE, whose main importance for vector boson scattering at high energies is its characteristic of calculating the complete matrix elements in leading order O(&#945;6). To analyze the viability of measuring the WW scattering at CMS, the simulated signal and background events were submitted to the CMS fast detector simulation, FAMOS. Background processes, WW+N jets, WZ+N jets, ZZ+N jets, W+N jets and tt+N jets, were studied and suppressed through kinematics region selection. Data analysis shows that the measurement of WW scattering in early stages of LHC will be very difficult, being necessary a larger luminosity, besides improvements on the analysis.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Este trabalho apresenta um estudo sobre o espalhamento W+W+ e W&#8722;W&#8722; para os primeiros anos de tomada de dados do experimento CMS do LHC, no CERN. O processo de espalhamento de bósons vetoriais, dentre os quais se inclui o espalhamento WW, é um processo chave para elucidação do mecanismo de quebra de simetria eletrofraca. Previsões teóricas mostram que as características cinemáticas do espalhamento de bósons vetoriais na escala T e V de energia devem depender significativamente do mecanismo que quebra a simetria eletrofraca. Este processo será analisado com dois objetivos principais: estudar a viabilidade de medi-lo em altas energias no CMS, e mostrar a sua sensibilidade ao mecanismo da quebra de simetria eletrofraca. Esta sensibilidade será mostrada através da análise de duas amostras de eventos correspondentes a dois cenários distintos: o modelo padrão com a presença de um bóson de Higgs de massa 500 GeV e o modelo padrão sem a presença do bóson de Higgs. Estas amostras foram geradas com o gerador de eventos PHASE, cuja principal importância para o estudo do espalhamento de bósons vetoriais em altas energias e a sua capacidade de calcular o elemento de matriz completo em ordem dominante O(&#945;6). Para se analisar a viabilidade de se medir o espalhamento WW no CMS, foi feita uma simulação do detector utilizando as amostras dos processos de sinal e dos principais processos de fundo através do pacote de simulação rápida do CMS, o FAMOS. Os processos de fundo, WW+N jatos, WZ+N jatos, ZZ+N jatos, W+N jatos e tt+N jatos, foram estudados e suprimidos através de seleções de regiões cinemáticas. A análise dos dados mostra que a observação do espalhamento WW na fase inicial do LHC será muito difícil, sendo necessária uma luminosidade maior, além de aprimoramento da análise. / This work presents a study of W+W+ and W&#8722;W&#8722; scattering for the first years of the CMS experiment data-taking at LHC, CERN. Vector boson scattering, including WW, is a key processes for probing electroweak symmetry breaking. Theoretical predictions show that kinematics characteristics of vector boson scattering at T e V scale must strongly depend on the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. This process is analyzed with two main objectives: viability study of performing this measurement at CMS and show its dependence on the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. This dependence is shown through an analysis with two event samples corresponding to two distinct scenarios: the standard model with the presence of a 500 GeV massive Higgs boson and the standard model without presence of a Higgs boson. These samples were generated by the Monte-Carlo generator PHASE, whose main importance for vector boson scattering at high energies is its characteristic of calculating the complete matrix elements in leading order O(&#945;6). To analyze the viability of measuring the WW scattering at CMS, the simulated signal and background events were submitted to the CMS fast detector simulation, FAMOS. Background processes, WW+N jets, WZ+N jets, ZZ+N jets, W+N jets and tt+N jets, were studied and suppressed through kinematics region selection. Data analysis shows that the measurement of WW scattering in early stages of LHC will be very difficult, being necessary a larger luminosity, besides improvements on the analysis.

MadGraph5 is used to generate events with Higgs boson pairs from vector boson fusion (VBF) at leading-order (LO) and next-to-leading-order (NLO) accuracy in QCD. The simulations are used to compute fiducial cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, using several kinematic cuts on the outgoing jets, e.g. the jet transverse momenta and pseudorapidity. The resulting cross-sections for NLO and LO are compared and their ratio,  the K-factor, is calculated for every kinematic cut. An attempt is made to extend the NLO simulation for non-Standard Model (SM) couplings between two vector bosons and two Higgs bosons (VVHH), however the corresponding model was found to be only compatible with LO accuracy in QCD.

The Standard Model (SM) is the fundamental theory describing elementary particles and their main interactions at typical energy scales at collider experiments, the electromagnetic, the weak, and the strong interactions. The more complex underlying structure describing the weak and the strong interactions in the SM compared to the electromagnetic interaction necessitates direct three-point and four-point interactions among the mediators of the weak and strong interactions, called gauge bosons. Such self-interactions do not exist for the gauge boson of the electromagnetic interaction, the photon. While the three-point interaction was studied in detail in earlier collider experiments, the four-point interaction is a fundamental prediction of the SM, which was not observed for the weak interaction when starting this study. One process, where both the three-point as well as the four-point interactions contribute is the scattering of electroweak gauge bosons W, Z, γ also referred to as vector boson scattering (VBS). In the SM, this scattering is mediated by gauge boson self-interactions, or via the exchange of a Higgs boson. The scattering contributions mediated by a Higgs boson are sensitive to the properties of the Higgs boson and the details of the mechanism in which the W and Z bosons acquire their masses, called electroweak symmetry breaking. At hadron colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), VBS is observable in a final state with the decay products of two gauge bosons in combination with two jets. These jets have a distinct signature allowing for good suppression of backgrounds and consequently for studies of the complex final state despite the low cross-sections. The first evidence for a VBS process was presented based on the Run 1 dataset alone by the ATLAS collaboration in the WW → WW channel in the fully leptonic final state. The CMS collaboration published the first observation of VBS in the same channel using data from 2015 and 2016 of Run 2, which was later confirmed by the ATLAS collaboration with contributions by the author, e.g. in the modelling of WZ background processes and associated uncertainties. The second boson channel for which VBS was observed was the WZ/γ → WZ boson channel in the fully leptonic final state. This observation was published by the ATLAS collaboration with significant contributions by the author. The studied dataset was collected with the ATLAS detector at a centre-of-mass energy √s = 13 TeV during 2015 and 2016 of Run 2 of the LHC and amounts to an integrated luminosity of 36.1/fb. In this study, the dataset was re-analysed following the same overall approach but with improvements in several key aspects. A comprehensive overview of available setups for reliable simulations of the signal process is presented. In a modelling study of the available setups, modelling issues in the parton shower simulation of SHERPA and earlier versions of PYTHIA observed in earlier studies are confirmed. The best matrix-element accuracies in available setups are leading-order for the full VBS signal process and next-to-leading-order in the VBF approximation. For upcoming analyses, a leading-order calculation of the full process including an additional QCD emission merged with parton shower simulations is found to be most promising, before full next-to-leading order calculations become available for all boson channels in VBS. Additional emphasis is set on the modelling of backgrounds, mainly WZ diboson production in association with additional QCD emissions as well as the experimental background due to misidentified leptons. A data-driven approach is applied and studied in detail for a reliable estimate of the latter background. Significant improvements to the estimate, e.g. in the form of additional corrections, are found via dedicated tests of the self-consistency of the approach using simulations. Machine-learning algorithms in the form of Boosted-Decision-Trees (BDT) are trained and optimized for improved separation of the background and signal processes. Evidence for the signal process is found with a significance of 3.44 σ using the profile likelihood method in a binned maximum-likelihood fit. The fiducial cross-section is measured to be σ= 1.41 + 0.46 - 0.40(stat) + 0.38 - 0.28 (theo) ± 0.13 (sys) fb , which is in good agreement with the leading-order SM prediction of σ = 1.33 + 0.14 -0.15 fb.:1 Introduction 2 Theoretical Framework 3 Simulations and Modelling Studies 4 Experiment 5 Object and Event Selection 6 Background Estimation 7 Multi-variate Event Classification 8 Uncertainties 9 Cross-section Measurement 10 Conclusions & Outlook