- Author
-
N. Valenčič
- Title
- Fusing the vector bosons: Higgs production through VBF and WW scattering at the current and future LHC
- Supervisors
- Co-supervisors
- Award date
- 10 November 2015
- Number of pages
- 213
- Document type
- PhD thesis
- Faculty
- Faculty of Science (FNWI)
- Institute
- Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEF)
- Abstract
-
A long search for the Higgs boson was successfully concluded in the summer of 2012. Ever since, efforts are put into precisely measuring all its properties, its production and decay rates, to verify if this is indeed the particle predicted by the Standard Model (SM) or a first evidence of some New Physics. This thesis describes the search for a specific combination of the Higgs boson production and decay modes which have not been observed so far - the Vector Boson Fusion (VBF) production with the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of W bosons.
After the introduction, this thesis is divided into two parts: ‘the first run at the LHC’ and ‘the future runs at the LHC’.
The first part describes the theoretical overview of the SM and the Higgs boson in chapters 1 and 2, respectively, followed by the description of the LHC and the ATLAS detector in chapter 3, event and object reconstruction in chapter 4 and the VBF H -> WW analysis in chapters 5 through 7. One of the focuses of this thesis is the treatment of systematic uncertainties of one of the largest backgrounds in the VBF H->WW analysis, the top-quark decays, and is presented in chapter 6.
The second part of this thesis starts by describing the scheduled upgrades of the LHC and the ATLAS detector in chapter 8. Chapters 9 and 10 are dedicated to two different feasibility studies; the first one analyses the benefits future LHC runs may bring to the VBF H->WW measurement and the second one studies the impact of the future ATLAS detector on the significance measurement of vector boson scattering (another processes which allows us to study the nature of the Higgs boson) and the sensitivity for New Physics. The thesis finishes with the conclusion and summary. - Note
- Research conducted at: Universiteit van Amsterdam
- Persistent Identifier
- https://hdl.handle.net/11245/1.490621
- Downloads
Disclaimer/Complaints regulations
If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library, or send a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible.