Thesis

Flavour anomalies in LHC data

• Call:

  IDPASC Portugal - PHD Programme 2019

• Academic Year:

  2019 / 2020

• Domain:

  Experimental Particle Physics

• Supervisor:

  Nuno Leonardo

• Co-Supervisor:

  Joao Varela

• Institution:

  Instituto Superior Técnico

• Host Institution:

  Laboratório de Instrumentação e Física Experimental de Partículas

• Abstract:

  The LHC physics program so-far has been extremely successful. It has established the standard model (SM) of particle physics as a superb theory. The SM cannot however be the ultimate theory of Nature, and a major goal of the LHC for the coming years is to detect the new physics (NP) that lies beyond the SM. The most significant and exciting indications of NP, in all of current collider data, lie in what is referred to as the “flavour anomalies”. These have persistently emerged from the data of various experiments, at the LHC and elsewhere. The anomalies have been detected in recent measurements of B meson decays. Such processes are highly sensitive to the presence of NP particles: even if those NP particles happen to be too heavy to be detected directly in the LHC collisions, they contribute as intermediary states and their presence becomes experimentally accessible in measurements of these sensitive B decays. The CMS detector has accumulated one of the largest heavy flavour datasets ever recorded. A dedicated data sample designed to facilitate the investigation of the above anomalies has been collected during 2018 by CMS. In this thesis project the student will investigate lepton flavor universality variables that sit at the core of the current anomnalies. The results that will be obtained will lead to a clarification of the anomalies, which is a current main priority in the field of particle physics.