Searching for Dark Matter with the ATLAS Detector

Searching for Dark Matter with the ATLAS Detector

Author: Steven Schramm

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-11-23

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 3319444530

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This thesis describes the search for Dark Matter at the LHC in the mono-jet plus missing transverse momentum final state, using the full dataset recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS Experiment. It is the first time that the number of jets is not explicitly restricted to one or two, thus increasing the sensitivity to new signals. Instead, a balance between the most energetic jet and the missing transverse momentum is required, thus selecting mono-jet-like final states. Collider searches for Dark Matter have typically used signal models employing effective field theories (EFTs), even when comparing to results from direct and indirect detection experiments, where the difference in energy scale renders many such comparisons invalid. The thesis features the first robust and comprehensive treatment of the validity of EFTs in collider searches, and provides a means by which the different classifications of Dark Matter experiments can be compared on a sound and fair basis.


Search for Dark Matter with ATLAS

Search for Dark Matter with ATLAS

Author: Ruth Pöttgen

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-29

Total Pages: 325

ISBN-13: 3319410458

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This thesis describes in detail a search for weakly interacting massive particles as possible dark matter candidates, making use of so-called mono-jet events. It includes a detailed description of the run-1 system, important operational challenges, and the upgrade for run-2. The nature of dark matter, which accounts for roughly 25% of the energy-matter content of the universe, is one of the biggest open questions in fundamental science. The analysis is based on the full set of proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at √s = 8 TeV. Special attention is given to the experimental challenges and analysis techniques, as well as the overall scientific context beyond particle physics. The results complement those of non-collider experiments and yield some of the strongest exclusion bounds on parameters of dark matter models by the end of the Large Hadron Collider run-1. Details of the upgrade of the ATLAS Central Trigger for run-2 are also included.


Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Higgs Boson Decaying to Two Bottom Quarks at ATLAS

Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Higgs Boson Decaying to Two Bottom Quarks at ATLAS

Author: Yangyang Cheng

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-09-29

Total Pages: 183

ISBN-13: 331944218X

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This thesis reports on the search for dark matter in data taken with the ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The identification of dark matter and the determination of its properties are among the highest priorities in elementary particle physics and cosmology. The most likely candidate, a weakly interacting massive particle, could be produced in the high energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis presented here is unique in looking for dark matter produced together with a Higgs boson that decays into its dominant decay mode, a pair of b quarks. If dark matter were seen in this mode, we would learn directly about the production mechanism because of the presence of the Higgs boson. This thesis develops the search technique and presents the most stringent production limit to date.


Electroweak Physics at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS Detector

Electroweak Physics at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS Detector

Author: Elodie Resseguie

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-03

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 3030570169

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This thesis discusses searches for electroweakly produced supersymmetric partners of the gauge and the Higgs bosons (gauginos and higgsinos) decaying to multiple leptons, using pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV. The thesis presents an in-depth study of multiple searches, as well as the first 13 TeV cross section measurement for the dominant background in these searches, WZ production. Two searches were performed using 36.1/fb of data: the gaugino search, which makes use of a novel kinematic variable, and the higgsino search, which produced the first higgsino limits at the LHC. A search using 139/fb of data makes use of a new technique developed in this thesis to cross check an excess of data above the background expectation in a search using a Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction technique. None of the searches showed a significant excess of data, and limits were expanded with respect to previous results. These searches will benefit from the addition of luminosity during HL-LHC; however, the current detector will not be able to withstand the increase in radiation. Electronics for the detector upgrade are tested and irradiated to ensure their performance.


Search for Exotic Mono-jet Events

Search for Exotic Mono-jet Events

Author: Valerio Rossetti

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-08-24

Total Pages: 173

ISBN-13: 3319222252

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This thesis describes in detail the search for new phenomena in mono-jet final states with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The final state is considered the golden channel in the searches for large extra dimensions (LED) but also allows access to a very rich SUSY-related phenomenology pertaining to the production of weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPS), SUSY Dark Matter candidates, GMSB SUSY models with very light gravitino masses, as well as stop an sbottom pair production in compressed scenarios (with nearly degenerated squarks and the lightest neutralino), and also invisible Higgs searches, among others. Here, a number of these scenarios are explored. The measurements presented yield new powerful constraints on the existence of extra spatial dimensions, the pair production of WIMPs, and also provide the best limit to date on the gravitino mass.


Looking Inside Jets

Looking Inside Jets

Author: Simone Marzani

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2019-05-11

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 3030157091

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This concise primer reviews the latest developments in the field of jets. Jets are collinear sprays of hadrons produced in very high-energy collisions, e.g. at the LHC or at a future hadron collider. They are essential to and ubiquitous in experimental analyses, making their study crucial. At present LHC energies and beyond, massive particles around the electroweak scale are frequently produced with transverse momenta that are much larger than their mass, i.e., boosted. The decay products of such boosted massive objects tend to occupy only a relatively small and confined area of the detector and are observed as a single jet. Jets hence arise from many different sources and it is important to be able to distinguish the rare events with boosted resonances from the large backgrounds originating from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). This requires familiarity with the internal properties of jets, such as their different radiation patterns, a field broadly known as jet substructure. This set of notes begins by providing a phenomenological motivation, explaining why the study of jets and their substructure is of particular importance for the current and future program of the LHC, followed by a brief but insightful introduction to QCD and to hadron-collider phenomenology. The next section introduces jets as complex objects constructed from a sequential recombination algorithm. In this context some experimental aspects are also reviewed. Since jet substructure calculations are multi-scale problems that call for all-order treatments (resummations), the bases of such calculations are discussed for simple jet quantities. With these QCD and jet physics ingredients in hand, readers can then dig into jet substructure itself. Accordingly, these notes first highlight the main concepts behind substructure techniques and introduce a list of the main jet substructure tools that have been used over the past decade. Analytic calculations are then provided for several families of tools, the goal being to identify their key characteristics. In closing, the book provides an overview of LHC searches and measurements where jet substructure techniques are used, reviews the main take-home messages, and outlines future perspectives.


Advances in Cosmology

Advances in Cosmology

Author: Marilena Streit-Bianchi

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2022-12-04

Total Pages: 382

ISBN-13: 3031056256

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Cosmology’s journey to the present day has been a long one. This book outlines the latest research on modern cosmology and related topics from world-class experts. Through it, readers will learn how multi-disciplinary approaches and technologies are used to search the unknown and how we arrived at the knowledge used and assumptions made by cosmologists today. The book is organized into four parts, each exploring a theme that has troubled humankind for centuries. Since the dawn of time, looking at the sky, humans have tried to understand their origin, the laws governing it, and what influence it all has on human life. In most ancient civilizations, astronomers embodied the power of knowledge. This knowledge was not compartmentalized, and scientists often found philosophical implications within their quests, many of which destroyed the borders between the natural sciences. Even now, as observers and scientists continue to use conjecture to generate theoretical assumptions and laws that then have to be confirmed experimentally, said theoretical and experimental searches are being linked to philosophical thinking and artistic representation, as they were up until the 18th century. This multi-disciplinary book will appeal to anyone with an interest in the fields of Astronomy, Cosmology or Physics.


Search for Charginos Nearly Mass-Degenerate with the Lightest Neutralino

Search for Charginos Nearly Mass-Degenerate with the Lightest Neutralino

Author: Shingo Kazama

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2015-10-22

Total Pages: 155

ISBN-13: 4431556575

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In this book, the anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) model is explored by searching for charged winos with their subsequent decays collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The author develops a new method, called “re-tracking,” to detect charged winos that decay before reaching the Semiconductor Tracker (SCT) detector. Because the nominal tracking algorithm at the ATLAS experiment requires at least seven successive hits in the inner tracking system, the sensitivity to charged winos having a fraction of a nanosecond in the past analysis was therefore limited. However, re-tracking requires a minimum of three pixel hits and provides a fully efficient tracking capability for charged winos traversing the pixel detector, resulting in around about 100 times greater efficiency for charged winos with a lifetime ~0.2 ns longer than that in past searches. Signal topology is characterized by a jet with large transverse momentum (pT), large missing transverse energy, and a high-pT disappearing track. There are three types of back ground tracks: interacting hadron tracks, charged leptons, and tracks with mismeasured pT. A background estimation based on the Monte Carlo (MC) simulation suffers from large uncertainties due to poor statistics and has difficulty simulating the properties of background tracks. Therefore, a data-driven approach has been developed by the author of the book to estimate the background track-pT spectrum. No significant excess above the background expectation is observed for candidate tracks with large transverse momentum, and constraints on the AMSB model are obtained. The author shows that in the AMSB model, a charged wino mass below 270 GeV is excluded at 95 % confidence level, which also directly constrains the mass of wino dark matter.


Search for New Physics in Mono-jet Final States in pp Collisions

Search for New Physics in Mono-jet Final States in pp Collisions

Author: Giuliano Gustavino

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-06-19

Total Pages: 245

ISBN-13: 3319588710

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This thesis provides a detailed and comprehensive description of the search for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the mono-jet final state, using the first 3.2 fb-1 of data collected at the centre of mass energy of colliding protons of 13~TeV recorded in the ATLAS experiment at LHC. The results are interpreted as limits in different theoretical contexts such as compressed supersymmetric models, theories that foresee extra-spatial dimensions and in the dark matter scenario. In the latter the limits are then compared with those obtained by other ATLAS analyses and by experiments based on completely different experimental techniques, highlighting the role of the mono-jet results in the context of dark matter searches.Lastly, a set of possible analysis improvements are proposed to reduce the main uncertainties that affect the signal region and to increase the discovery potential by further exploiting the information on the final state.