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# A measurement of the Drell-Yan differential cross section using data from proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

 dc.contributor.author Kwan, Tony dc.date.accessioned 2012-12-07T21:35:31Z dc.date.available 2012-12-07T21:35:31Z dc.date.copyright 2012 en_US dc.date.issued 2012-12-07 dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1828/4340 dc.description.abstract LHC proton-proton collisions at a centre of mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7 TeV were observed in 2011. From a 1.68 fb$^{-1}$sample of the data collected using the ATLAS detector, electron-positron pairs originating from the Drell-Yan process were selected using a cut based analysis. After the selection process, an estimate of the background was determined followed by the selection efficiency, detector resolution, reconstruction efficiency, and kinematic acceptance. Using these, the Drell-Yan differential cross section was calculated as a function of invariant mass between 26 and 66 GeV/c$^2\$. This measurement has a precision between 12.4\% and 8.01\% from the lower invariant mass bins to the higher ones. The Drell-Yan cross section in proton-proton collisions depends on empirical quantities known as parton distribution functions which parametrize the structure of the proton. The measurement outlined in this thesis observes a region in parton distribution function phase space previously untouched by experiments. en_US dc.language English eng dc.language.iso en en_US dc.subject ATLAS en_US dc.subject LHC en_US dc.subject CERN en_US dc.subject Drell-Yan en_US dc.subject Parton distribution functions en_US dc.subject Particle physics en_US dc.title A measurement of the Drell-Yan differential cross section using data from proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector en_US dc.type Thesis en_US dc.contributor.supervisor Keeler, Richard K. dc.degree.department Dept. of Physics and Astronomy en_US dc.degree.level Master of Science M.Sc. en_US dc.rights.temp Available to the World Wide Web en_US dc.description.scholarlevel Graduate en_US
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