Higgs Boson Decays into a Pair of Bottom Quarks


Book Description

The discovery in 2012 of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) represents a milestone for the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics. Most of the SM Higgs production and decay rates have been measured at the LHC with increased precision. However, despite its experimental success, the SM is known to be only an effective manifestation of a more fundamental description of nature. The scientific research at the LHC is strongly focused on extending the SM by searching, directly or indirectly, for indications of New Physics. The extensive physics program requires increasingly advanced computational and algorithmic techniques. In the last decades, Machine Learning (ML) methods have made a prominent appearance in the field of particle physics, and promise to address many challenges faced by the LHC. This thesis presents the analysis that led to the observation of the SM Higgs boson decay into pairs of bottom quarks. The analysis exploits the production of a Higgs boson associated with a vector boson whose signatures enable efficient triggering and powerful background reduction. The main strategy to maximise the signal sensitivity is based on a multivariate approach. The analysis is performed on a dataset corresponding to a luminosity of 79.8/fb collected by the ATLAS experiment during Run-2 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. An excess of events over the expected background is found with an observed (expected) significance of 4.9 (4.3) standard deviation. A combination with results from other \Hbb searches provides an observed (expected) significance of 5.4 (5.5). The corresponding ratio between the signal yield and the SM expectation is 1.01 +- 0.12 (stat.)+ 0.16-0.15(syst.). The 'observation' analysis was further extended to provide a finer interpretation of the V H(H → bb) signal measurement. The cross sections for the VH production times the H → bb branching ratio have been measured in exclusive regions of phase space. These measurements are used to search for possible deviations from the SM with an effective field theory approach, based on anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson. The results of the cross-section measurements, as well as the constraining of the operators that affect the couplings of the Higgs boson to the vector boson and the bottom quarks, have been documented and discussed in this thesis. This thesis also describes a novel technique for the fast simulation of the forward calorimeter response, based on similarity search methods. Such techniques constitute a branch of ML and include clustering and indexing methods that enable quick and efficient searches for vectors similar to each other. The new simulation approach provides optimal results in terms of detector resolution response and reduces the computational requirements of a standard particles simulation.




The Large Hadron Collider


Book Description

Lincoln, a senior scientist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and adjunct professor of physics at Notre Dame, gives readers an insider's view of the Hadron Collider from its conception, through its early discoveries and difficulties, to its greatest triumph, the discovery of the Higgs boson.




The God Particle


Book Description

A fascinating tour of particle physics from Nobel Prize winner Leon Lederman. At the root of particle physics is an invincible sense of curiosity. Leon Lederman embraces this spirit of inquiry as he moves from the Greeks' earliest scientific observations to Einstein and beyond to chart this unique arm of scientific study. His survey concludes with the Higgs boson, nicknamed the God Particle, which scientists hypothesize will help unlock the last secrets of the subatomic universe, quarks and all--it's the dogged pursuit of this almost mystical entity that inspires Lederman's witty and accessible history.




Higgs Boson Decays Into a Pair of Bottom Quarks


Book Description

This thesis presents the analysis that led to the observation of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson decay into pairs of bottom quarks. The analysis, based on a multivariate strategy, exploits the production of a Higgs boson associated with a vector boson. The analysis was performed on a dataset corresponding to a luminosity of 79.8/fb collected by the ATLAS experiment during Run-2 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. An excess of events over the expected background is observed in a combination with complementary Hbb searches. The analysis was extended to provide a finer interpretation of the signal measurement. The cross sections of the V H(H → bb) process have been measured in exclusive regions of phase space and used to search for deviations from the SM with an effective field theory approach. The results are discussed in this book. A novel technique for the fast simulation of the ATLAS forward calorimeter response is also presented. The new technique is based on similarity search, a branch of machine learning that enables quick and efficient searches for vectors similar to each other.




The Higgs Fake


Book Description

"The book is a merciless critique of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN and of the theoretical model on which the world's most expensive experiment is based. Unzicker, a German physicist and award-winning science writer, argues that the greatest physicists such as Einstein, Dirac or Schrödinger would have considered the "discovery" of the Higgs particle ridiculous. According to the author, the standard model has grown unbelievably complicated and doesn't solve any of the great riddles of physics. Moreover, with their increasingly intricate techniques, particle physicists are fooling themselves with alleged results, while their convictions are based on group-think and parroting. Altogether, the data analysis cannot be overseen by anybody"--




The Large Hadron Collider


Book Description

Describes the technology and engineering of the Large Hadron collider (LHC), one of the greatest scientific marvels of this young 21st century. This book traces the feat of its construction, written by the head scientists involved, placed into the context of the scientific goals and principles.




Particle Physics Reference Library


Book Description

This first open access volume of the handbook series contains articles on the standard model of particle physics, both from the theoretical and experimental perspective. It also covers related topics, such as heavy-ion physics, neutrino physics and searches for new physics beyond the standard model. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A, B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access




Looking Inside Jets


Book Description

This concise primer reviews the latest developments in the field of jets. Jets are collinear sprays of hadrons produced in very high-energy collisions, e.g. at the LHC or at a future hadron collider. They are essential to and ubiquitous in experimental analyses, making their study crucial. At present LHC energies and beyond, massive particles around the electroweak scale are frequently produced with transverse momenta that are much larger than their mass, i.e., boosted. The decay products of such boosted massive objects tend to occupy only a relatively small and confined area of the detector and are observed as a single jet. Jets hence arise from many different sources and it is important to be able to distinguish the rare events with boosted resonances from the large backgrounds originating from Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD). This requires familiarity with the internal properties of jets, such as their different radiation patterns, a field broadly known as jet substructure. This set of notes begins by providing a phenomenological motivation, explaining why the study of jets and their substructure is of particular importance for the current and future program of the LHC, followed by a brief but insightful introduction to QCD and to hadron-collider phenomenology. The next section introduces jets as complex objects constructed from a sequential recombination algorithm. In this context some experimental aspects are also reviewed. Since jet substructure calculations are multi-scale problems that call for all-order treatments (resummations), the bases of such calculations are discussed for simple jet quantities. With these QCD and jet physics ingredients in hand, readers can then dig into jet substructure itself. Accordingly, these notes first highlight the main concepts behind substructure techniques and introduce a list of the main jet substructure tools that have been used over the past decade. Analytic calculations are then provided for several families of tools, the goal being to identify their key characteristics. In closing, the book provides an overview of LHC searches and measurements where jet substructure techniques are used, reviews the main take-home messages, and outlines future perspectives.




Search for Higgs Boson Decays to Charm Quarks with the ATLAS Experiment and Development of Novel Silicon Pixel Detectors


Book Description

This book explores the Higgs boson and its interactions with fermions, as well as the detector technologies used to measure it. The Standard Model of Particle Physics has been a groundbreaking theory in our understanding of the fundamental properties of the universe, but it is incomplete, and there are significant hints which require new physics. The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012 was a substantial confirmation of the Standard Model, but many of its decay modes remain elusive. This book presents the latest search for Higgs boson decays into c-quarks using a proton-proton collision dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This decay mode has yet to be observed and requires advanced machine learning algorithms to identify c-quarks in the experiment. The results provide an upper limit on the rate of Higgs boson decays to c-quarks and a direct measurement of the Higgs boson coupling strength to c-quarks. The book also discusses the future of particle physics and the need for significant improvements to the detector to cope with increased radiation damage and higher data rates at the High-Luminosity LHC. It presents the characterization of the ATLAS pixel detector readout chip for the inner detector upgrade (ITk). The chip was subjected to irradiations using X-rays and protons to simulate the radiation environment at the HL-LHC. The tests showed that all readout chip components, including the digital logic and analogue front-end, are sufficiently radiation-tolerant to withstand the expected radiation dose. Finally, this book describes monolithic pixel detectors as a possible technology for future pixel detectors. This book is ideal for individuals interested in exploring particle physics, the Higgs boson, and the development of silicon pixel detectors.




The Large Hadron Collider


Book Description

As accessible as it is fascinating, The Large Hadron Collider reveals the inner workings of this masterful achievement of technology, along with the mind-blowing discoveries that will keep it at the center of the scientific frontier for the foreseeable future.