Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

© 2014, The Author(s).Abstract: The production of beauty and charm quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared 5 < Q2< 1000 GeV2 using an integrated luminosity of 354 pb−1. The beauty and charm content in events with at least one jet have been extracted using the invariant mass of charged tracks associated with secondary vertices and the decay-length significance of these vertices. Differential cross sections as a function of Q2, Bjorken x, jet trans- verse energy and pseudorapidity were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty and charm contributions to the proton structure functions were extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of x and Q2. The running beauty-quark mass, mb at the scale mb, was determined from a QCD fit at next-to-leading order to HERA data for the first time and found to be mb(mb) = 4.07 ± 0.14 (fit)− 0.07+ 0.01(mod.)− 0.00+ 0.05(param.)− 0.05+ 0.08(theo.) GeV.

Abstract:

Abstract: The production of beauty and charm quarks in ep interactions has been studied with the ZEUS detector at HERA for exchanged four-momentum squared 5 < Q2< 1000 GeV2using an integrated luminosity of 354 pb−1. The beauty and charm content in events with at least one jet have been extracted using the invariant mass of charged tracks associated with secondary vertices and the decay-length significance of these vertices. Differential cross sections as a function of Q2, Bjorken x, jet trans- verse energy and pseudorapidity were measured and compared with next-to-leading-order QCD calculations. The beauty and charm contributions to the proton structure functions were extracted from the double-differential cross section as a function of x and Q2. The running beauty-quark mass, mbat the scale mb, was determined from a QCD fit at next-to-leading order to HERA data for the first time and found to be mb(mb) = 4.07 ± 0.14 (fit)− 0.07+ 0.01(mod.)− 0.00+ 0.05(param.)− 0.05+ 0.08(theo.) GeV.

Abstract:

© 2014, CERN. Measurements of differential production cross-sections of a Z boson in association with b-jets in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV are reported. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb^-1 recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Particle-level cross-sections are determined for events with a Z boson decaying into an electron or muon pair, and containing b-jets. For events with at least one b-jet, the cross-section is presented as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum and rapidity, together with the inclusive b-jet cross-section as a function of b-jet transverse momentum, rapidity and angular separations between the b-jet and the Z boson. For events with at least two b-jets, the cross-section is determined as a function of the invariant mass and angular separation of the two highest transverse momentum b-jets, and as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum and rapidity. Results are compared to leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations.

Abstract:

© 2014, The Author(s). Abstract: Measurements of fiducial and differential cross sections are presented for Higgs boson production in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of (formula presented) TeV. The analysis is performed in the H → γγ decay channel using 20.3 fb−1 of data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The signal is extracted using a fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum assuming that the width of the resonance is much smaller than the experimental resolution. The signal yields are corrected for the effects of detector inefficiency and resolution. The pp → H → γγ fiducial cross section is measured to be 43.2 ±9.4(stat.) − 2.9 + 3.2 (syst.) ±1.2(lumi)fb for a Higgs boson of mass 125.4GeV decaying to two isolated photons that have transverse momentum greater than 35% and 25% of the diphoton invariant mass and each with absolute pseudorapidity less than 2.37. Four additional fiducial cross sections and two cross-section limits are presented in phase space regions that test the theoretical modelling of different Higgs boson production mechanisms, or are sensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Differential cross sections are also presented, as a function of variables related to the diphoton kinematics and the jet activity produced in the Higgs boson events. The observed spectra are statistically limited but broadly in line with the theoretical expectations.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]

Abstract:

© 2014, The Author(s). Abstract: A search for squarks and gluinos in final states containing high-pT jets, missing transverse momentum and no electrons or muons is presented. The data were recorded in 2012 by the ATLAS experiment in (formula presented) TeV proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider, with a total integrated luminosity of 20.3 fb−1. Results are interpreted in a variety of simplified and specific supersymmetry-breaking models assuming that R-parity is conserved and that the lightest neutralino is the lightest supersymmetric particle. An exclusion limit at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the gluino is set at 1330 GeV for a simplified model incorporating only a gluino and the lightest neutralino. For a simplified model involving the strong production of first- and second-generation squarks, squark masses below 850 GeV (440 GeV) are excluded for a massless lightest neutralino, assuming mass degenerate (single light-flavour) squarks. In mSUGRA/CMSSM models with tan β = 30, A0 = −2m0 and μ > 0, squarks and gluinos of equal mass are excluded for masses below 1700 GeV. Additional limits are set for non-universal Higgs mass models with gaugino mediation and for simplified models involving the pair production of gluinos, each decaying to a top squark and a top quark, with the top squark decaying to a charm quark and a neutralino. These limits extend the region of supersymmetric parameter space excluded by previous searches with the ATLAS detector.[Figure not available: see fulltext.]