A Search for Displaced Leptons in the ATLAS Detector

A Search for Displaced Leptons in the ATLAS Detector

Author: Lesya Horyn

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-02-07

Total Pages: 146

ISBN-13: 3030916723

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This thesis presents a search for long-lived particles decaying into displaced electrons and/or muons with large impact parameters. This signature provides unique sensitivity to the production of theoretical lepton-partners, sleptons. These particles are a feature of supersymmetric theories, which seek to address unanswered questions in nature. The signature searched for in this thesis is difficult to identify, and in fact, this is the first time it has been probed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It covers a long-standing gap in coverage of possible new physics signatures. This thesis describes the special reconstruction and identification algorithms used to select leptons with large impact parameters and the details of the background estimation. The results are consistent with background, so limits on slepton masses and lifetimes in this model are calculated at 95% CL, drastically improving on the previous best limits from the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP).


Search for Higgs Bosons Decaying to Aa in the [mu][mu][tau][tau] Final State in Pp Collisions at [arrow]"

Search for Higgs Bosons Decaying to Aa in the [mu][mu][tau][tau] Final State in Pp Collisions at [arrow]

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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A search for the decay to a pair of new particles of either the 125 GeV Higgs boson (h) or a second charge parity (CP)-even Higgs boson (H) is presented. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb-1 of pp collisions at [arrow]" = 8 TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in 2012. The search was done in the context of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, in which the new particles are the lightest neutral pseudoscalar Higgs bosons (a). One of the two a bosons is required to decay to two muons while the other is required to decay to two [tau] leptons. No significant excess is observed above the expected backgrounds in the dimuon invariant mass range from 3.7 to 50 GeV. Upper limits are placed on the production of h 2!aa relative to the standard model gg 2!h production, assuming no coupling of the a boson to quarks. The most stringent limit is placed at 3.5% for ma = 3.75 GeV. The upper limits are also placed on the production cross section of H 2!aa from 2.33 to 0.72 pb, for fixed ma = 5 GeV with mH ranging from 100 to 500 GeV.


A Search for Exotic Higgs Decays

A Search for Exotic Higgs Decays

Author: Jackson Burzynski

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2023-05-23

Total Pages: 201

ISBN-13: 3031304667

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The absence of new physics at the TeV scale observed thus far at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) motivates an increasing focus on searches for weakly-coupled new particles and exotic signatures. In particular, particles with macroscopic mean proper lifetimes, known as long-lived particles (LLPs), are of significant interest due to their ability to elude the majority of searches which rely on the assumption that Beyond Standard Model particles decay close to the primary interaction point. Many models which aim to solve various issues with the Standard Model (SM) introduce new particles with lifetimes that are either unconstrained, or even shown to prefer the macroscopic regime. These theories often point to the Higgs boson as a possible portal to new physics, with exotic Higgs decays being the primary phenomenological consequence and means of discovery. It is well motivated both from theory and experimental constraints to consider the scenario in which the particles produced in these exotic decays have macroscopic proper lifetimes and give rise to unique detector signatures. This work describes a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to two long-lived, neutral, spin-0 particles which subsequently decay to pairs of b quarks, giving the striking signature of displaced hadronic jets in the ATLAS inner detector. Several other ATLAS searches have probed this decay topology previously, excluding branching ratios of the Higgs boson to LLPs of more than 10% for proper lifetimes greater than 100mm. These searches relied on dedicated triggers designed to select events with LLPs decaying in the ATLAS calorimeter or muon spectrometer. The lack of an equivalent trigger for LLP decays in the ATLAS inner detector has been a limiting factor in probing LLP lifetimes less than 100mm. To circumvent the difficulty of triggering on LLP decays, the search presented in this thesis exploits the ZH associated production mode, relying on leptonic trigger signatures to select interesting events. This is the first search for Higgs boson decays into LLPs to exploit this analysis methodology and additionally makes use of several novel methods for both background rejection and background estimation. No excess over Standard Model predictions is observed, and upper limits are set on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs . Depending on the mass of the LLP, branching ratios greater than 10% are excluded for lifetimes as small as 4mm and as large as 100mm, probing an important gap in the ATLAS exotic Higgs decay programme. In comparison to the previous searches for Higgs decays to LLPs, these are among the most stringent limits placed on this scenario, and for LLPs with masses below 40 GeV these results represent the strongest existing constraints on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to LLPs in this lifetime regime.


Search for New Light Gauge Bosons in Higgs Boson Decays to Four-lepton Final States in Pp Collisions at \(\sqrt{s}

Search for New Light Gauge Bosons in Higgs Boson Decays to Four-lepton Final States in Pp Collisions at \(\sqrt{s}

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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This research presents a search for Higgs bosons decaying to four leptons, either electrons or muons, via one or two light exotic gauge bosons Zd, H 2!ZZd 2!4l or H 2!ZdZd 2!4l. The search was performed using pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 20 fb-1 at the center-of-mass energy of \(\sqrt{s} = 8\) TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The observed data are well described by the Standard Model prediction. Upper bounds on the branching ratio of H 2!ZZd 2!4l and on the kinetic mixing parameter between the Zd and the Standard Model hypercharge gauge boson are set in the range (1-9) × 10-5 and (4-17) × 10-2 respectively, at 95% confidence level assuming the Standard Model branching ratio of H 2!ZZ* 2!4l, for Zd masses between 15 and 55 GeV. Upper bounds on the effective mass mixing parameter between the Z and the Zd are also set using the branching ratio limits in the H 2!ZZd 2!4l search, and are in the range (1.5-8.7) × 10-4 for 15


Search for Charged Higgs Bosons Decaying Via H± → Τ±ν in Fully Hadronic Final States with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

Search for Charged Higgs Bosons Decaying Via H± → Τ±ν in Fully Hadronic Final States with the ATLAS Detector at the LHC

Author: Anna Kopp

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Zusammenfassung: Searches for charged Higgs bosons decaying to a tau lepton and a neutrino in fully hadronic final states are presented in this thesis. The analyses are based on 4.6fb^-1 and 19.5fb^-1 of proton-proton collision data taken with the ATLAS detector at the LHC at center-of-mass energies of 7TeV and 8TeV in 2011 and 2012, respectively.Charged Higgs bosons with masses less than the top quark mass are searched for in events consistent with top-quark pair production and charged Higgs bosons with masses greater than the top quark mass are searched for in associated production with a top quark.In the search based on data taken in 2011, all background contributions are estimated in data-driven ways. Only a minor background contribution is estimated using simulation in the searches based on data taken in 2012; all dominant background contributions are estimated using data-driven methods here as well. An embedding method is used in all searches to assess the dominant and irreducible background contributions containing true hadronically decaying tau leptons and described in detail in this thesis.No significant excess of the data compared to the background expectations due to Standard Model processes is observed. Statistical analyses lead to 95% confidence-level upper limits on the branching ratios B(t->bH^±)xB(H^±->tau^± nu) between 0.23% and 1.3% for charged Higgs boson masses between 80GeV and 160GeV and on the production cross section times branching ratio, sigma(pp->tH^±+X)xB(H^±->tau^± nu) ranging from 0.76pb to 4.5fb for charged Higgs boson masses between 180GeV and 1000GeV. The branching ratio and cross section limits are used to derive constraints on the parameter space of minimal supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model in various benchmark scenarios. These limits are the so far strictest limits set by the ATLAS collaboration in the search for charged Higgs bosons in fully hadronic final states


Search for Invisible Higgs-boson Decays in Events with Vector-boson Fusion Signatures Using 139 Fb−1 of Proton-proton Data Recorded by the ATLAS Experiment

Search for Invisible Higgs-boson Decays in Events with Vector-boson Fusion Signatures Using 139 Fb−1 of Proton-proton Data Recorded by the ATLAS Experiment

Author: [Study Group] ATLAS Collaboration CERN

Publisher:

Published: 2022

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13:

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Abstract: A direct search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and subsequently decaying into invisible particles is reported. The analysis uses 139 fb−1 of pp collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of s√ = 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The observed numbers of events are found to be in agreement with the background expectation from Standard Model processes. For a scalar Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV and a Standard Model production cross section, an observed upper limit of 0.145 is placed on the branching fraction of its decay into invisible particles at 95% confidence level, with an expected limit of 0.103. These results are interpreted in the context of models where the Higgs boson acts as a portal to dark matter, and limits are set on the scattering cross section of weakly interacting massive particles and nucleons. Invisible decays of additional scalar bosons with masses from 50 GeV to 2 TeV are also studied, and the derived upper limits on the cross section times branching fraction decrease with increasing mass from 1.0 pb for a scalar boson mass of 50 GeV to 0.1 pb at a mass of 2 TeV


Study of the Spin and Parity of the Higgs Boson in Diboson Decays with the ATLAS Detector

Study of the Spin and Parity of the Higgs Boson in Diboson Decays with the ATLAS Detector

Author:

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages:

ISBN-13:

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Studies of the spin, parity and tensor couplings of the Higgs boson in the H→ZZ*→4l, H→WW*→e[nu][mu][nu] and H→[gamma][gamma] decay processes at the LHC are presented. The investigations are based on 25fb-1 of pp collision data collected by the ATLAS experiment at √s=7 TeV and √s=8 TeV. The Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson hypothesis, corresponding to the quantum numbers JP=0+, is tested against several alternative spin scenarios, including non-SM spin-0 and spin-2 models with universal and non-universal couplings to fermions and vector bosons. All tested alternative models are excluded in favour of the SM Higgs boson hypothesis at more than 99.9 % confidence level. Using the H→ZZ*→4l and H→WW*→e[nu][mu][nu] decays, the tensor structure of the interaction between the spin-0 boson and the SM vector bosons is also investigated. The observed distributions of variables sensitive to the non SM tensor couplings are compatible with the SM predictions and constraints on the non SM couplings are derived.