Thesis

Search for new physics via rare processes at the Large Hadron Collider

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2017

• Academic Year:

  2017 / 2018

• Domain:

  Experimental Particle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Joao Varela

• Co-Supervisor:

  Nuno Leonardo

• Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  Rare processes are a very promising means of searching for physics beyond the standard model (BSM). The subject of this project is the search and study of the decay of B mesons into muon pairs. The decays of neutral B mesons into muon pairs are particularly sensitive to new physics. Sizable enhancements of the decay rates are however predicted in the context of common classes of BSM scenarios. They constitute for this reason most promising probes for revealing the presence and characterizing new physics. The B ??? rare decays have been searched for over almost three decades, by many experiments at different accelerators. Sufficient experimental sensitivity has only recently been reached with the LHC. Recently, evidence for the Bs rare decay into a muon pair was reported for the first time, by CMS and LHCb independently. The current goal of the analysis is to establish the Bs decay and to find evidence for the even more rare and challenging Bd decay.