A search for Z' bosons in the dimuon decay channel in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions

Large Hadron Collider (LHC);European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN);Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System (ATLAS);"Z";dilepton resonances;muon resolution

Coggeshall, James

关键词: Large Hadron Collider (LHC);    European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN);    Argonne Tandem Linear Accelerator System (ATLAS);    "Z";    dilepton resonances;    muon resolution;   

Others  :  https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/45423/James_Coggeshall.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

美国|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

In this thesis, I present a search for $Z'$ bosons in the $\mu^+\mu^-$ decay channel using 20 fb$^{-1}$ of $p$-$p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 8 $ TeV, produced during the 2012 run at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, using the ATLAS detector to record the collision products. The search proceeds via a comparison of the reconstructed dimuon invariant mass distribution with the expected distribution, given Standard Model only sources of background. In addition to the ``official'' ATLAS dimuon selection, I present a new dimuon selection, designed for this analysis, whose purpose is to increase the sensitivity of the search relative to the official selection. I observe no statistically significant deviation from the Standard Model expectation, and proceed to place new lower limits on the masses of $Z'$ bosons inspired by the $E_6$ Grand Unified Theory.