Although the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics describes observations well, there are several shortcomings of it. The most crucial of these are that the SM cannot explain the origin of neutrino masses and the existence of dark matter. Furthermore, there are several aspects of it that are seemingly ad hoc, such as the choice of gauge group and the cancellation of gauge anomalies. These shortcomings point to a theory beyond the SM. Although there are many proposed models for physics beyond the SM, in this thesis, we focus on grand unified theories based on the SO(10) gauge group. It predicts that the three gauge groups in the SM unify at a higher energy into one, which contains the SM as a subgroup. We focus on the Yukawa sector of these models and investigate the extent to which the observables such as fermion masses and mixing parameters can be accommodated into different models based on the SO(10) gauge group. Neutrino masses and leptonic mixing parameters are particularly interesting, since SO(10) models naturally embed the seesaw mechanism. The difference in energy scale between the electroweak scale and the scale of unification spans around 14 orders of magnitude. Therefore, one must relate the parameters of the SO(10) model to those of the SM through renormalization group equations. We investigate this for several different models by performing fits of SO(10) models to fermion masses and mixing parameters, taking into account thresholds at which heavy right-handed neutrinos are integrated out of the theory. Although the results are in general dependent on the particular model under consideration, there are some general results that appear to hold true. The observ- ables of the Yukawa sector can in general be accommodated into SO(10) models only if the neutrino masses are normally ordered and that inverted ordering is strongly disfavored. We find that the observable that provides the most tension in the fits is the leptonic mixing angle θ2l3, whose value is consistently favored to be lower in the fits than the actual value. Furthermore, we find that numerical fits to the data favor type-I seesaw over type-II seesaw for the generation of neutrino masses. / <p>Examinator: Professor Mark Pearce, Fysik, KTH</p>

To verify nuclear weapon treaties, such as CTBT the ability to scientifically monitor treaty violations is of importance. One tool for monitoring nuclear weapons testing is the use of gamma ray spectrometry. A calibration on a multi detector element coincidence gamma spectrometer setup was performed from previously gathered experimental data. Data from one calibration sample and a blank sample were analyzed in this project. The first part consisted of energy, full width half maximum (FWHM) and efficiency calibrations, for each of the detectors. Spectra were created, showing the results in the different detectors. From the spectra, several radionuclides were identified, both background nuclides and nuclides from the calibration sample. To each peak, a Gaussian shaped curve was numerically fitted and the parameters were used to perform the calibrations. Efficiencies were calculated for the individual peaks, whereas the energy and FWHM calibrations resulted in linear relationships. During the second part of this project, coincident gamma-rays were investigated. The efficiency for a coincident decay in each detector pair was calculated. This was compared with the product of the singular efficiencies, and a correction term was introduced. Furthermore, the signal to noise ratio was compared for spectra created with different data sorting methods.

Safety and reliability are one of the key objectives for future Generation IV nuclear energy systems. The neutron flux monitoring system forms an integral part of the safety design of a nuclear reactor and must be able to detect any irregularities during all states of reactor operation. The work in this thesis mainly concerns the detection of in-core perturbations arising from unwanted movements of control rods with in-vessel neutron detectors in a sodium-cooled fast reactor. Feasibility study of self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs) with platinum emitters as in-core power profile monitors for SFRs at full power is performed. The study shows that an SPND with a platinum emitter generates a prompt current signal induced by neutrons and gammas of the order of 600 nA/m, which is large enough to be measurable. Therefore, it is possible for the SPND to follow local power fluctuations at full power operation. Ex-core and in-core detector locations are investigated with two types of detectors, fission chambers and self-powered neutron detectors (SPNDs) respectively, to study the possibility of detection of the spatial changes in the power profile during two different transient conditions, i.e. inadvertent withdrawal of control rods (IRW) and one stuck rod during reactor shutdown (OSR). It is shown that it is possible to detect the two simulated transients with this set of ex-core and in-core detectors before any melting of the fuel takes place. The detector signal can tolerate a noise level up to 5% during an IRW and up to 1% during an OSR.

In this paper the higgs mechanism for the standard model is constructed in steps. First by considering spontaneous breaking of discrete and continuous global gauge invariance. Then spontaneous breaking of local gauge invariance. These results are then used to construct the electroweak part of the standard model through application of the higgs mechanism. Finally, the LQT-upper bound of 1 TeV for the higgs mass is calculated through unitarity constraints. / I denna artikel konstrueras higgsmekanismen i standardmodellen stegvis. Först genom att beakta spontant symmetribrott av diskreta samt kontinuerliga globala gaugeinvarianser. Därefter spontant symmetribrott av lokala gaugeinvarianser. Dessa resultat används sedan för att konstruera den elektrosvaga delen av standardmodellen genom tillämpning av higgsmekanismen. Slutligen beräknas en övre gräns för higgsmassan, den så kallade LQT-gränsen, via unitaritetsbegränsingar.

The Higgs self-coupling has a vital role by giving a deeper understanding of the Higgs particle. Furthermore, the way it opens to physics beyond the SM, encourages us to do MC simulationstudies for varying λ_hhh . In this project, we investigate the effects of choosing different values for λ_hhh on the kinematics of all particles involved in the hh → τ τ τ τ decay channel and the resultsare compared with what we get from the SM prediction of λ_hhh .The data show that λ_hhh more close to the SM trilinear Higgs self-coupling results in generatingthe Higgs particles with the higher masses and higher momenta. On the other hand, for the moremassive Higgs bosons we have more energetic neutrinos in the final states which escape from thedetector without being detected.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the most powerful and complex particle accelerator ever built. The ATLAS and the CMS are the two multipurpose particle detectors at the LHC, designed to cover a wide range of physics measurements. Three physics studies performed using data of proton-proton collisions collected with the ATLAS detector are presented. The identification of jets originating from b quarks, also known as b-tagging, is a crucial tool for many physics analyses at the LHC. This thesis presents a calibration of the b-tagging efficiency for high transverse momentum jets using a new calibration technique. This analysis is based on template fits and uses multi-jet events, which allows to perform the calibration for jets with transverse momenta up to 1200 GeV. This thesis also describes a completed and connected technical project on the development of the b-tagging ATLAS software. Dark Matter (DM) is a new phenomenon introduced to explain astrophysical observations. The nature of DM is one of the most important subjects of investigations in the modern physics, and many of these investigations are carried out at the LHC. A search for DM production in association with a pair of heavy flavour quarks has been recently performed in ATLAS at a centre-of-mass energy √s = 8 TeV under the Effective Field Theory approach. A re-interpretation of the results of this search under assumption of the simplified models is presented. A set of simplified models is considered with various DM masses, masses of the spin-0 exchange particle, that mediates the interaction between DM and the regular matter, and various values of couplings. Benchmark models are chosen to be used in the DM searches at √s = 13 TeV. The last part of the thesis presents a search for DM production in association with a pair of top quarks performed under assumption of the simplified models with spin-0 mediator, using the data collected at a centre-of-mass energy √s = 13 TeV. The observed data are shown to be in good agreement with the Standard Model predictions, and upper limits are set on a ratio between the observed DM production cross section and the value expected by the simplified model.

No description available.

The Large Hadron Collider is the most powerful particle accelerator built to date. It is a proton-proton and heavy ion collider which in 2015 and 2016 operated at an unprecedented center of mass energy of √s = 13 TeV. The Tile Calorimeter is the ATLAS hadronic calorimeter covering the central region of the detector. It is designed to measure hadrons, jets, tau particles and missing energy. In order to accurately be able to properly reconstruct these physical objects a careful description of the electronic noise is required. This thesis presents the work done in updating, monitoring and studying the noise calibration constants used in the processing and identication of hadronic jet in the 2011 data. Moreover the results of the searches for compressed supersymmetric squark-neutralino and large extra dimensions models are also presented in this thesis. The present work uses an experimental signature with a high energy hadronic jet and large missing transverse energy later often referred to as monojet signature. The search for supersymmetry is carried out using an integrated luminosity of 3.2 fb-1 recorded by the ATLAS experiment in 2015. The search for large extra dimensions presented in this work uses the full 2015 + 2016 dataset of 36.1 fb-1. No signicant excess compared to the Standard Model prediction has been observed on the production of squark pairs with the subsequent decay of the squark in a quark and a neutrino. Exclusion limits are set on squark production as a function of the neutralino mass. Squark masses up to 608 GeV are excluded for a mass difference between the squark and the neutralino of 5 GeV. In the second search for the presence of large extra spatial dimensions in the Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali model scenario a good agreement between data and Standard Model prediction is observed and exclusion limits are set on the effective Planck scale MD of 7.7 and 4.8 TeV for two and six hypothesized large extra dimensions respectively signicantly improving earlier results.

No description available.

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.