Thesis

Measurement of the top quark properties and tests of the Standard Model at the LHC with the CMS detector

• Call:

  FCT / IDPASC call 2012

• Academic Year:

  2012 /2013

• Domain:

  Experimental Particle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Michele Gallinaro

• Co-Supervisor:

  Joao Varela

• Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  Characterization of the top quark events are among the first studies to be performed with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data. Top quarks are mostly produced in pairs with subsequent decay to W bosons and b-jets. The dilepton channel denotes the case where both W decay leptonically. The LHC will deliver approximately 15 fb-1 of data in 2012 and first stringent tests of the Standard Model (SM) with Top candidates can be performed. The candidate will contribute in the context of the Portuguese participation at the CMS experiment at the LHC. The work will focus on top quark production cross-section measurement in dilepton events and on the b-tagging efficiency estimation by determining the heavy-flavor content of top quark pair events. Some of these aspects have already been studied with 2011 data. Any deviation from the SM expectations may provide hints of New Physics.