Thesis

Top quark physics and search for physics beyond the Standard Model at the Large Hadron Collider

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2014

• Academic Year:

  2014 /2015

• 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:

  Top quarks are primarily produced in pairs at a hadron collider. In the framework of the Standard Model (SM), each top quark decays into a W and a b quark. The top quark pair events can be characterized by the decays of the two W bosons. Top quarks are abundantly produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC, and constitute the main background to searches for New Physics. A , and a good understanding of the top quark events will allow a more sensitive reach into the realm of searches for BSM processes. The work will focus will focus on measuring studying the properties of the top dilepton channel to measure the heavy flavour content of top quark events. Due to the higher center-of-mass energy during Run2 (13-14 TeV), further studies of additional b-jets produced in association with top quark pair events are also foreseen. The link between b-quark association to top events, and the possibly large content of heavy flavour in BSM final states will be used to further characterize the data, with the goal of discriminating between SM and BSM processes. An anomalous heavy flavor production is directly “visible” in this study. Deviations from SM predictions will indicate evidence for New Physics.