ATLAS Run 1 searches for direct pair production of third-generation squarks at the Large Hadron Collider

This paper reviews and extends searches for the direct pair production of the scalar supersymmetric partners of the top and bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions collected by the ATLAS collaboration during the LHC Run 1. Most of the analyses use 20 fb$^{-1}$ of collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV, although in some case an additional 4.7 fb$^{-1}$ of collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV are used. New analyses are introduced to improve the sensitivity to specific regions of the model parameter space. Since no evidence of third-generation squarks is found, exclusion limits are derived by combining several analyses and are presented in both a simplified model framework, assuming simple decay chains, as well as within the context of more elaborate phenomenological supersymmetric models

Search for Weakly Produced Supersymmetric Particles in the ATLAS Experiment

The Large Hadron Collider located at CERN is currently the most powerful particle accelerator and ATLAS is an experiment designed to exploit the high energy proton-proton collisions provided by the LHC. It opens a unique window to search for new physics at very high energy, such as supersymmetry, a postulated symmetry between fermions and bosons. Supersymmetry can provide a solution to the hierarchy problem and a candidate for Dark Matter. It also predicts the existence of new particles with masses around 1 TeV, thus reachable with the LHC. This thesis presents a new search for supersymmetry in a previously unexplored search channel, namely the production of charginos and neutralinos directly decaying to electroweak on-shell gauge bosons, with two leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in the final state. The search is performed with proton-proton collision data at a center of mass energy of √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS experiment in 2012. The design of a signal region sensitive to the new signal is presented and a data driven technique to estimate the Z+jets background is developed. Precise measurements of hadronic jet energies are crucial to search for new physics with ATLAS. A precise energy measurement of hadronic jets requires detailed knowledge of the pulse-shapes from the hadron calorimeter signals. Performance of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter in this respect is presented using both pion test-beams and proton–proton collision data.At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 2 and Paper 4: Technical report from the  ATLAS experiment.</p

Measurement of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter pulse-shapes with √s = 7 TeV collision data

The energy reconstruction of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter requires a predefined pulse-shape function. This pulse-shape function must match the pulse-shapes in data to avoid bias in the reconstructed energy. Using 60 nb-1 of √s = 7 TeV collision data, this note investigates deviations between measured pulse-shapes and the pulse-shape used for reconstruction and the possible bias on the energy reconstruction are studied. Measured pulse-shape widths exhibit slight channel-by-channel variations of the order ±1% with respect to the width of the reference pulse-shape. This implies less than 0.5% bias on the reconstructed energy. No energy dependence of the pulse-shapes is found.</p

Search for Weakly Produced Supersymmetric Particles in the ATLAS Experiment [Elektronisk resurs]

The Large Hadron Collider located at CERN is currently the most powerful particle accelerator and ATLAS is an experiment designed to exploit the high energy proton-proton collisions provided by the LHC. It opens a unique window to search for new physics at very high energy, such as supersymmetry, a postulated symmetry between fermions and bosons.Supersymmetry can provide a solution to the hierarchy problem and a candidate for Dark Matter. It also predicts the existence of new particles with masses around 1 TeV, thus reachable with the LHC. This thesis presents a new search for supersymmetry in a previously unexplored search channel, namely the production of charginos and neutralinos directly decaying to electroweak on-shell gauge bosons, with two leptons, jets, and missing transverse momentum in the final state. The search is performed with proton-proton collision data at a center of mass energy of √s = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS experiment in 2012. The design of a signal region sensitive to the new signal is presented and a data driven technique to estimate the Z+jets background is developed.Precise measurements of hadronic jet energies are crucial to search for new physics with ATLAS. A precise energy measurement of hadronic jets requires detailed knowledge of the pulse-shapes from the hadron calorimeter signals. Performance of the ATLAS Tile Calorimeter in this respect is presented using both pion test-beams and proton–proton collision data.</p

Fake Isolated Muon Background in Searches for Supersymmetry with two Muons in the Final State

We study a data-driven technique to derive the contamination from fake isolated muons in a search for supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, in final states with two high pT muons. The signal sample is characterized by jets, missing transverse energy and two high pT muons, isolated from calorimeter energy. In real data, a fraction of the selected events will arise from processes where at least one of the isolated muons is not truly isolated, but rather arises in conjunction with a jet. We illustrate how to determine the contribution from fake isolated muons, to the signal sample. The method is demonstrated with a simple SUSY analysis of the di-muon sample. We study a range of potential systematic effects arising from the extrapolation from the control sample to the signal region.</p