Tau Physics with First Data in ATLAS

Tau leptons, and particularly their hadronic decays, will play an important role at the LHC. The goals for early tau physics in ATLAS include collecting a sample of tau leptons from data with a purity as high as possible so that the identification efficiency of hadronically decaying tau leptons can be measured and the simulation can be tuned. Collecting data with an integrated luminosity of a few hundred pb^{-1} at an instantaneous luminosity of 10^{31} cm^{-2}s^{-1} will provide a unique opportunity to access and understand statistically significant tau samples from Standard Model processes at relatively low transverse momenta. Processes like the production of W and Z bosons and top quark pairs will lead to samples of a few hundred to a few thousand identified hadronic tau decays. Hadronically decaying tau leptons will then become a well understood probe for discovery physics like searches for Higgs bosons, SUSY, or exotic phenomena. Feasibility studies for analyses which can be envisaged with an integrated luminosity of 100 pb^{-1} to 1 fb^{-1} are presented

Search for New Physics in Tau-pair Events in ATLAS at the LHC

With the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a new world-largest particle accelerator, an exciting period in particle physics research will begin. ATLAS, one of the two general purpose detectors constructed at the LHC, is intended to search for new phenomena which involve highly massive particles whose detection was beyond the reach of past, lower-energy experiments. In this thesis, the potential of ATLAS to discover a new heavy particle in the two tau lepton final state is discussed based on fully simulated data samples. The tau-pair signature is important as it is sensitive to particles which couple preferentially to the third generation fermions as well as it offers potential for measuring polarisation asymmetry. It is shown that such particle could be discovered in this channel already at early stage of ATLAS operation. After collecting more data, measurement of tau polarisation would then provide an interesting constraint on the nature of the resonance. Searches for new physics in channels involving taus require excellent understanding of tau leptons' signatures in the ATLAS detector. Development of an algorithm for efficient and robust identification of hadronically decaying taus is a team work of many people in ATLAS. Improvements to the algorithm are also discussed in the thesis

New hadronic currents in TAUOLA: for confrontation with the experimental data

The status of implementation of new hadronic currents into the Monte Carlo system for simulation of tau-lepton production and decay in high-energy accelerator experiments is reviewed. Since the tau-lepton conference in 2010 substantial progress was achieved: (i) For the TAUOLA Monte Carlo generator of tau-lepton decays, automated and simultaneous use of many versions of form factors for the calculation of optional weights for fits was developed and checked to work in the Belle and BaBar software environment. Alternative parameterizations of hadronic currents based on the Resonance Chiral approach are available now. This was achieved for more than 88% of the total tau hadronic width. (ii) the TAUOLA universal interface based on HepMC (the C++ event record) is available. This is the case for C++ users of PHOTOS Monte Carlo for radiative corrections in decays, as well. An algorithm for weighted events to explore spin effects in analysis of hard processes was prepared. (iii) Kernels featuring a complete first-order matrix element are available now for PHOTOS users interested in decays of Z and W bosons. New tests with different options of matrix elements for those and for Kl3 decays are available as well. Presented results illustrate the status of the projects performed in collaboration with Zofia Czyczula, Nadia Davidson, Tomasz Przedzinski, Olga Shekhovtsova, Elzbieta Richter-Was, Pablo Roig, Qingjun Xu and others.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Talk given in the 'From PHI to PSI 2011' Conference (Novosibirsk, Russia). To appear in the Proceeding

Single hadron response measurement and calorimeter jet energy scale uncertainty with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

The uncertainty on the calorimeter energy response to jets of particles is derived for the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). First, the calorimeter response to single isolated charged hadrons is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo simulation using proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of sqrt(s) = 900 GeV and 7 TeV collected during 2009 and 2010. Then, using the decay of K_s and Lambda particles, the calorimeter response to specific types of particles (positively and negatively charged pions, protons, and anti-protons) is measured and compared to the Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the jet energy scale uncertainty is determined by propagating the response uncertainty for single charged and neutral particles to jets. The response uncertainty is 2-5% for central isolated hadrons and 1-3% for the final calorimeter jet energy scale.Comment: 24 pages plus author list (36 pages total), 23 figures, 1 table, submitted to European Physical Journal

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections for Higgs boson production in the diphoton decay channel at s√=8 TeV with ATLAS

Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=8 TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations

Evidence for the Higgs-boson Yukawa coupling to tau leptons with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for H → τ τ decays are presented, based on the full set of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC during 2011 and 2012. The data correspond to integrated luminosities of 4.5 fb−1 and 20.3 fb−1 at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV respectively. All combinations of leptonic (τ → `νν¯ with ` = e, µ) and hadronic (τ → hadrons ν) tau decays are considered. An excess of events over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.5 (3.4) standard deviations. This excess provides evidence for the direct coupling of the recently discovered Higgs boson to fermions. The measured signal strength, normalised to the Standard Model expectation, of µ = 1.43 +0.43 −0.37 is consistent with the predicted Yukawa coupling strength in the Standard Model

Expected Performance of the ATLAS Experiment - Detector, Trigger and Physics

A detailed study is presented of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector. The reconstruction of tracks, leptons, photons, missing energy and jets is investigated, together with the performance of b-tagging and the trigger. The physics potential for a variety of interesting physics processes, within the Standard Model and beyond, is examined. The study comprises a series of notes based on simulations of the detector and physics processes, with particular emphasis given to the data expected from the first years of operation of the LHC at CERN

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

Measurements of Higgs boson production and couplings in diboson final states with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

Measurements are presented of production properties and couplings of the recently discovered Higgs boson using the decays into boson pairs, H →γ γ, H → Z Z∗ →4l and H →W W∗ →lνlν. The results are based on the complete pp collision data sample recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider at centre-of-mass energies of √s = 7 TeV and √s = 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 25 fb−1. Evidence for Higgs boson production through vector-boson fusion is reported. Results of combined fits probing Higgs boson couplings to fermions and bosons, as well as anomalous contributions to loop-induced production and decay modes, are presented. All measurements are consistent with expectations for the Standard Model Higgs boson