W/Z+Jets production cross section ratio as a new physics search with the ATLAS Detector at CERN

Date

2011-12-12

Authors

Pearce, James D.

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Abstract

One of the dominant backgrounds in new physics searches at the Large Hadron Collider comes from the leptonic decays of Standard Model W and Z bosons recoiling off jets associated with the underlying event. The ratio of the W+jets and Z+jets cross sections, Rn, is predicted with high precision due to the similar masses and production mechanisms of the W and Z bosons. Any significant departures of Rn from predicted values would be an indication of new physics. This thesis studies a strategy to enhance the sensitivity of Rn to a specific type of signal. A measurement of the ratio Rn is presented, and its sensitivity to pair production of top quarks and leptoquarks is studied. Using a set of topology-discriminating variables, based upon calorimeter topoclusters, the sensitivity of Rn to top quark and leptoquark signals is enhanced using multivariate analysis techniques.

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Keywords

W boson, Z boson, leptoquark, jet, neural network, new physics search, W/Z + jets cross section, event shape variables, ATLAS, LHC

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