Our current understanding of matter and its interactions is summarised in the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Many experiments have tested the predictions of the SM with great success, but others have brought our ignorance into focus by showing us there are new phenomena that we can not describe within the framework of the SM. These include the experimental observations of neutrino masses and dark matter, which confirms there must be new physics. What this new physics may look like at colliders motivates the original work in this thesis, which comprises three studies: the prospects of future electron-positron colliders in testing a model with an extended Higgs sector with a scalar triplet, doublet and singlet; the discovery potential at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of a non-minimal Supersymmetric model via conventional sparticle searches and via searches for displaced vertices; and the experimental search for long-lived massive particles via a displaced vertex signature using data of proton-proton collisions collected at a collider center of mass energy of 8 TeV in 2012 by the ATLAS detector operating at the LHC.

Following the announcement of the discovery of a new particle on the 4th of July 2012 at the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC, many efforts were needed for the understanding of its properties and to discern whether it is the Standard Model Higgs boson. The research presented in this thesis is based on the H → ZZ(*) → 4l decay channel. Three main contributions are discussed: the Standard Model Higgs boson mass measurement, the search for a heavy Higgs boson, and lastly, the implementation of a kinematic likelihood fitter as a new approach to improve the invariant mass resolution of the final states. The Standard Model Higgs boson mass measurement is presented. The measured mass is 124:51± 0:52(stat)± 0:06(syst) GeV for the combined data taken during 2011 and 2012 (4:6 fb-¹ at 7 TeV and 20:7 fb-¹ at 8 TeV). Contributing to the mass measurement, a tool was developed to validate the model used by generating several pseudo datasets from Monte Carlo samples and fitting them with the profile likelihood. The results show that the model is correct and only small deviations are seen in the parameters of interest, mH, and the signal strength, μ. Studies in the asymptotic limit show that these deviations are a symptom of low statistics in some of the final states. The search for a heavy Higgs boson is presented as well. No significant excess of events over the Standard Model prediction is found. A simultaneous fit to the profile likelihood gives 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross-section of a heavy Higgs times the branching ratio to Z boson pairs in the mass range from 140 GeV to 1 TeV. Contributing to this search, a pseudo dataset, called Asimov dataset, is created from the Monte Carlo samples to test the profile likelihood fits and validate the model used. The results show that fit the model is correct. In addition, the limits are also interpreted in the context of Type I and Type II Two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDM). Finally, a Kinematic Likelihood Fitter (KLFitter) is studied and used to constrain the Z boson mass as an alternative to the standard tool used for the 2011 and 2012 measurement. This affects the distribution of the invariant mass, m4l, from which the Higgs boson mass is inferred. Small improvements are seen in the invariant mass resolution when higher hypothetical Higgs boson masses are considered.

Two measurements of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa angle &gamma; using B &rarr; DK and B⁰ &rarr; DK^&ast;0 decays are presented in this thesis. The subsequent D meson decays to the K_S⁰&pi;⁺&pi;^− and K_S⁰K⁺K^− final states are studied using a binned Dalitz plot analysis. The D strong-phase variation over the Dalitz plot is taken from measurements performed at the CLEO-c experiment, making the analysis independent of a model to describe the D decay amplitude. Both measurements are performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment in 2011 and 2012, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb^−1 at centre-of-mass energies &radic;s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The value &gamma;= (62 ⁺¹⁵<sub style='position: relative; left: -1.7em;'>−14</sub>)° is measured using B⁰ &rarr; DK^&ast;0 decays and &gamma; = (71 ± 20)° is measured using B⁰ &rarr; DK^&ast;0 decays, with a second solution for each value corresponding to &gamma; + 180°. The measurements are consistent with the world average value of &gamma;.

This thesis describes the measurement of inclusive heavy flavor jet suppression in collisions between two lead nuclei with the center of mass energy per nucleon-nucleon pair of 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The measurement of the heavy flavor jets and b-jet quenching at the LHC is important in the path towards the understanding of QGP. Parton showers initiated by heavy quarks are expected to be sensitive to the medium in a different way as the large quark mass suppresses the medium-induced radiation. This results in a different interplay between radiative and collisional energy loss. Therefore the analysis of the properties of jet associated with b hadrons (b-jet) is useful in understanding energy loss in the QGP. The inclusive b-jet suppression R AA has been measured using muons in jets, where a b-jet corresponds to a jet with at least one muon clustered with the anti-k t algorithm with parameter R = 0.2. The b-jets of p T between 30 GeV - 150 GeV are identified by the semileptonic decay of beauty hadrons. Muons originating from background sources, primarily Charm hadrons, pion and kaon decays, have been removed from the analysis using template fits to the distribution of a quantity(p T^rel) capable of statistically distinguishing between signal and background. The measured nuclear modification factor R AA has been presented in different centrality bins as a function of the b-jet transverse momentum p T.The results of R AA indicate that the yield of the most central event (0-10%) experiences more suppression compared to the most peripheral event (60-80%) by a factor of approximate 2.

Estágio realizado no CERN e orientado Eva Sanchez-Corral Mena / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informática e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Estágio realizado na ATLAS Distributed Computing Group e orientado por Markus Elsing / Tese de mestrado integrado. Engenharia Informátca e Computação. Faculdade de Engenharia. Universidade do Porto. 2008

Dans les études présentées ici, seules les données collectées par le détecteur ATLAS sont analysées. La première partie du document décrit en détails le contexte théorique sous-jacent à ces études, ainsi que lecolllisioneur LHC et l'expérience ATLAS. Le LHC étant un collisionneur hadronique, l'identification et la reconstruction des leptons est cruciale pour les mesures précises de section efficaces des processus du Modèle Standard, ou la recherche de nouvelle physique. C'est pourquoi la deuxième partie du document est dédiée aux mesures de performances : mesures in situ des efficacités de reconstruction et d'identification des électrons. La recherche de nouvelle physique est présentée dans la troisième partie du document. Cette étude a été réalisée dans le canal incluant deux leptons de même charge et de l'énergie transverse manquante. Les résultats inclus ont été obtenus avec un ensemble de données collectées à $sqrt s$ = 8 TeV correspondant à une luminosité intégrée de L = 20 fb$^{-1}$, ainsi que les premières données collectées avec $sqrt s$ = 13 TeV. L'état final constitué d'une paire de leptons de même charge et de jets permet également la mesure directe du couplage de Yukawa pour le quark top, à l'aide du processus $ppto tbar tH$. Ce couplage est le plus élevé dans le Modèle Standard et associe les deux particules élémentaires les plus lourdes prédites par la théorie, le quark top et le boson de Higgs. Dans la quatrième partie de ce document, une étude complète de la sensibilité pouvant être atteinte avec une énergie de $sqrt s$ = 13TeV et une luminosité intégrée de 100 fb$^{-1}$ of data, est présentée pour le canal incluant deux leptons de même charge. / For the presented studies only the data recorded with the ATLAS detector is analyzed. The theoretical framework, the LHC collider and the ATLAS experiment are given in the first part of this thesis.At hadron colliders, the lepton identification and reconstruction are crucial for precise SM cross sections and coupling measurements or for new physics searches. Therefore, the second part of my thesis is dedicated to performance studies : in-situ measurements of electron identification and reconstruction efficiencies. The search for new physics is presented in the third part of the thesis. For these studies the channel with two same~- sign leptons and missing transverse energy is considered. The results are obtained with $L$~=~20 fb$^{-1}$ of data recorded at $sqrt s$ = 8 TeV and with the very first data at $sqrt s$ = 13 TeV. At the end of Run-1 no significant excess in data over the Standard Model prediction is observed and stringent limits on the supersymmetric particle masses are set. With the two same - sign leptons and jets final state it is also possible to measure directly the top quark Yukawa coupling using the ttbar + $H$ channel. This coupling is the largest in the Standard Model and it connects two of the heaviest particles predicted by the Standard Model, the top quark and the Higgs boson. In the fourth part of this thesis, a complete optimization is performed to reach the highest sensitivity for this signal in the two same~- sign leptons channel at $sqrt s$ = 13 TeV with 100 fb$^{-1}$ of data, corresponding to the end of Run-2.

Grâce à l'exploitation du Large Hadron Collider, débutée en 2010, le monde de la physique des particules espère enfin avoir une compréhension plus précise du mécanisme de brisure de la symétrie électrofaible et résoudre certaines questions expérimentales et théoriques que soulèvent encore le modèle standard. S'inscrivant dans cette effervescence scientifique, nous allons présenter dans ce manuscrit une paramétrisation largement indépendante des modèles afin de caractériser les effets d'une éventuelle nouvelle physique sur les mécanismes de production et de désintégration du bosons de Higgs. Ce nouvel outil pourra aisément être utilisé dans les analyses des grandes expériences généralistes comme CMS et ATLAS afin de valider ou d'exclure de manière significative certaines théories au delà du modèle standard. Ensuite, dans une approche différente, fondée sur la construction de modèles, nous avons considéré un scenario où les champs du modèle standard peuvent se propager dans un espace plat possédant six dimensions. Les nouvelles directions spatiales supplémentaires sont compactifiées sur un Plan Projectif Réel. Cet orbifold original est l'unique géométrie à six dimensions qui présente des fermions chiraux et un candidat de matière noire dit naturel. Le photon scalaire, particule la plus légère du premier mode de Kaluza-Klein, est en effet stabilisé par une symétrie résiduelle de l'invariance de Lorentz à six dimensions. En utilisant les contraintes actuelles fournies par les observations cosmologiques, nous avons déterminé l'ordre de grandeur de la masse de cette particule aux alentours d'une centaine de GeV. De ce fait les nouveaux états présents dans cette théorie sont suffisamment légers pour produire des signatures claires et observables au Large Hadron Collider. Avec une étude plus poussée du spectre de masses et des couplages du modèle, incluant les corrections radiatives à une boucle, nous avons pu ainsi donner les premières prédictions et contraintes sur la phénoménologie attendue au Large Hadron Collider.

Dark matter has been shown to be extremely abundant in our universe. It comprises about 23 percent of the energy density of the entire universe, which is more than five times greater than the regular matter we already know about. Dark matter cannot be explained within the Standard Model of particle physics. However, models which extend the Standard Model, such as supersymmetry, can explain dark matter. This dissertation investigates the signals of some supersymmetry models in the context of collider physics. If dark matter particles or other supersymmetry particles are produced at some collider experiment, such as the Large Hadron Collider, it is important to know how we can find and measure the signatures and properties of these particles. This dissertation provides some measurement techniques for that exact purpose. These measurement techniques are also very general, making them useful for examining other models of particle physics as well. Lastly, if the supersymmetry model can be understood well enough from collider data, the connection back to cosmology can be made. Namely, it is possible to determine (from LHC data and using a standard cosmological calculation) the abundance of dark matter in the universe. Comparing this collider value with the value already measured will be a crucial step in understanding dark matter. This dissertation provides simulated results of this dark matter abundance calculation for a number of supersymmetry model points.

Over the last few decades, the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics has been used as a means of understanding the world around us. However, there is an increasing amount of data that suggests the SM of particle physics only describes nature up to energies of the electroweak scale. Extensions to the SM have been developed as a means of explaining experimental observation. If these extensions are indeed the correct mathematical descriptions of nature, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland, is expected to produce new and exciting physics signatures that can shed light on the evolution of our universe since the early hypothesized Big Bang. Of particular interest are models that may lead to events with highly energetic tau lepton pairs. In this dissertation, focus is placed on a possible search for new heavy gauge bosons decaying to highly energetic tau pairs using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb^-1 of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The number of observed events in the data is in good agreement with the predictions for SM background processes. In the context of the Sequential SM, a Z0 with mass less than 468 GeV/c^2 is excluded at 95 percent credibility level, exceeding the sensitivity by the Tevatron experiments at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.