Searches for Supersymmetric Particles in Final States with Multiple Top and Bottom Quarks with the Atlas Detector

Searches for Supersymmetric Particles in Final States with Multiple Top and Bottom Quarks with the Atlas Detector
Author: Chiara Rizzi
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2020-09-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030528774

This PhD thesis documents two of the highest-profile searches for supersymmetry performed at the ATLAS experiment using up to 80/fb of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during its Run 2 (2015-2018). The signals of interest feature a high multiplicity of jets originating from the hadronisation of b-quarks and large missing transverse momentum, which constitutes one of the most promising final state signatures for discovery of new phenomena at the LHC. The first search is focused on the strong production of a pair of gluinos, with each gluino decaying into a neutralino and a top-antitop-quark pair or a bottom-antibottom-quark pair. The second search targets the pair production of higgsinos, with each higgsino decaying into a gravitino and a Higgs boson, which in turn is required to decay into a bottom-antibottom-quark pair. Both searches employ state-of-the-art experimental techniques and analysis strategies at the LHC, resulting in some of the most restrictive bounds available to date on the masses of the gluino,neutralino, and higgsino in the context of the models explored.

Supersymmetric Beasts and Where to Find Them

Supersymmetric Beasts and Where to Find Them
Author: Marco Valente
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 231
Release: 2022-03-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030940470

After an extensive overview of the Standard Model and of the theory and phenomenology of Supersymmetry, this book describes the recent development of the ATLAS Particle Flow algorithm, a hadronic reconstruction technique aiming at enhancing the sensitivity of the experiment to new physics through the combination of the information from different ATLAS sub-detectors. The first ever ATLAS strong SUSY search exploiting this technique is also described, reporting the results and exclusion limits obtained using the complete proton-proton collision dataset recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the second Run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Search for New Physics in tt ̅ Final States with Additional Heavy-Flavor Jets with the ATLAS Detector

Search for New Physics in tt ̅ Final States with Additional Heavy-Flavor Jets with the ATLAS Detector
Author: Javier Montejo Berlingen
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2016-07-20
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3319410512

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

Weak Scale Supersymmetry

Weak Scale Supersymmetry
Author: Howard Baer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 557
Release: 2023-01-31
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1009289845

This OA text develops the basic concepts of supersymmetry for experimental and phenomenological particle physicists and graduate students.

A Search for Displaced Leptons in the ATLAS Detector

A Search for Displaced Leptons in the ATLAS Detector
Author: Lesya Horyn
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 146
Release: 2022-02-07
Genre: Science
ISBN: 3030916723

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).