Higgs Physics at the Large Hadron Collider

In this talk I will begin by summarising the importance of the Higgs physics studies at the LHC. I will then give a short description of the pre-LHC constraints on the Higgs mass and the theoretical predictions for the LHC along with a discussion of the current experimental results, ending with prospects in the near future at the LHC. In addition to the material covered in the presented talk, I have included in the writeup, a critical appraisal of the theoretical uncertainties in the Higgs cross-sections at the Tevatron as well as a discussion of the recent experimental results from the LHC which have become available since the time of the workshop.Comment: LateX, 12 figures, 15 pages, Presented at the XIth Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology, 2010, Ahmedabad, Indi

Soft-gluon effects in WW production at hadron colliders

We consider QCD radiative corrections to WW pair production in hadron collisions. We perform a calculation that consistently combines next-to-leading order predictions with soft-gluon resummation valid at small transverse momenta ptWW of the WW pair. We present results for the ptWW distribution at the LHC up to (almost) next-to-next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, and study the effect of resummation on the charged-lepton distributions. Soft-gluon effects are typically mild, but they can be strongly enhanced when hard cuts are applied. The relevant distributions are generally well described by the MC@NLO event generator.Comment: 15 pages, 12 postscript figures. Error corrected in NLO plot for WW transverse-mass distribution. Results unchange

Soft gluons in Higgs plus two jet production

We investigate the effects of an all order QCD resummation of soft gluon emissions for Higgs boson production in association with two hard jets. We consider both the gluon-gluon fusion and weak boson fusion processes and show how to resum a large part of the leading logarithms in the jet veto scale. Our resummation improves on previous analyses which also aim to include the effects of multiple soft gluon radiation. In addition we calculate the interference between weak boson fusion and gluon-gluon fusion and find that it is small.Comment: 15 pages and 5 figure

A Supersymmetric Explanation of the Excess of Higgs-Like Events at LEP

Searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson by the four LEP experiments found excess events in two mass ranges: a 2.3 sigma excess around 98 GeV, and an 1.7 sigma excess around 115 GeV. The latter has been discussed widely in the literature, but the former has attracted little attention so far. In this paper I explore the possibility of explaining the excess near 98 GeV through production of the lighter CP--even Higgs boson in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). It is shown that this allows to simultaneously explain the excess near 115 GeV through the production of the heavier CP--even MSSM Higgs boson. The resulting light Higgs sector offers opportunities for charged Higgs boson searches at the Tevatron and LHC. Neutral Higgs boson searches at the LHC in the di--muon channel are also promising. However, conclusive tests of this scenario may have to wait for the construction of a linear e+ e- collider.Comment: LaTeX, 14 pages, 7 .eps-files (included). Added references and a couple of footnotes; results unchanged. Version to appear in PR

Inclusive search for same-sign dilepton signatures in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

An inclusive search is presented for new physics in events with two isolated leptons (e or mu) having the same electric charge. The data are selected from events collected from p p collisions at root s = 7 TeV by the ATLAS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb(-1). The spectra in dilepton invariant mass, missing transverse momentum and jet multiplicity are presented and compared to Standard Model predictions. In this event sample, no evidence is found for contributions beyond those of the Standard Model. Limits are set on the cross-section in a fiducial region for new sources of same-sign high-mass dilepton events in the ee, e mu and mu mu channels. Four models predicting same-sign dilepton signals are constrained: two descriptions of Majorana neutrinos, a cascade topology similar to supersymmetry or universal extra dimensions, and fourth generation d-type quarks. Assuming a new physics scale of 1 TeV, Majorana neutrinos produced by an effective operator V with masses below 460 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. A lower limit of 290 GeV is set at 95% confidence level on the mass of fourth generation d-type quarks

Measurement of the top quark-pair production cross section with ATLAS in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7\TeV

A measurement of the production cross-section for top quark pairs(\ttbar) in $pp$ collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 \TeV is presented using data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Events are selected in two different topologies: single lepton (electron $e$ or muon $\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least four jets, and dilepton ($ee$, $\mu\mu$ or $e\mu$) with large missing transverse energy and at least two jets. In a data sample of 2.9 pb-1, 37 candidate events are observed in the single-lepton topology and 9 events in the dilepton topology. The corresponding expected backgrounds from non-\ttbar Standard Model processes are estimated using data-driven methods and determined to be $12.2 \pm 3.9$ events and $2.5 \pm 0.6$ events, respectively. The kinematic properties of the selected events are consistent with SM \ttbar production. The inclusive top quark pair production cross-section is measured to be \sigmattbar=145 \pm 31 ^{+42}_{-27} pb where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measurement agrees with perturbative QCD calculations.Comment: 30 pages plus author list (50 pages total), 9 figures, 11 tables, CERN-PH number and final journal adde

Standalone vertex finding in the ATLAS muon spectrometer

A dedicated reconstruction algorithm to find decay vertices in the ATLAS muon spectrometer is presented. The algorithm searches the region just upstream of or inside the muon spectrometer volume for multi-particle vertices that originate from the decay of particles with long decay paths. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using both a sample of simulated Higgs boson events, in which the Higgs boson decays to long-lived neutral particles that in turn decay to bbar b final states, and pp collision data at √s = 7 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC during 2011

Search for chargino-neutralino production with mass splittings near the electroweak scale in three-lepton final states in √s=13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for supersymmetry through the pair production of electroweakinos with mass splittings near the electroweak scale and decaying via on-shell W and Z bosons is presented for a three-lepton final state. The analyzed proton-proton collision data taken at a center-of-mass energy of √s=13  TeV were collected between 2015 and 2018 by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139  fb−1. A search, emulating the recursive jigsaw reconstruction technique with easily reproducible laboratory-frame variables, is performed. The two excesses observed in the 2015–2016 data recursive jigsaw analysis in the low-mass three-lepton phase space are reproduced. Results with the full data set are in agreement with the Standard Model expectations. They are interpreted to set exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level on simplified models of chargino-neutralino pair production for masses up to 345 GeV

Measurement of inclusive two-particle angular correlations in pp collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

We present a measurement of two-particle angular correlations in proton- proton collisions at s√=900 GeV and 7 TeV. The collision events were collected during 2009 and 2010 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider using a single-arm minimum bias trigger. Correlations are measured for charged particles produced in the kinematic range of transverse momentum p T  > 100 MeV and pseudorapidity |η| < 2.5. A complex structure in pseudorapidity and azimuth is observed at both collision energies. Results are compared to pythia 8 and herwig++ as well as to the AMBT2B, DW and Perugia 2011 tunes of pythia 6. The data are not satisfactorily described by any of these models

Measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper reports a measurement of D*+/- meson production in jets from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is based on a data sample recorded with the ATLAS detector with an integrated luminosity of 0.30 pb^-1 for jets with transverse momentum between 25 and 70 GeV in the pseudorapidity range |eta| < 2.5. D*+/- mesons found in jets are fully reconstructed in the decay chain: D*+ -> D0pi+, D0 -> K-pi+, and its charge conjugate. The production rate is found to be N(D*+/-)/N(jet) = 0.025 +/- 0.001(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) for D*+/- mesons that carry a fraction z of the jet momentum in the range 0.3 < z < 1. Monte Carlo predictions fail to describe the data at small values of z, and this is most marked at low jet transverse momentum.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (22 pages total), 5 figures, 1 table, matches published version in Physical Review