Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

A search for direct chargino production in anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking scenarios is performed in pp collisions at √s=7TeV using 4.7 fb-1 of data collected with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. In these models, the lightest chargino is predicted to have a lifetime long enough to be detected in the tracking detectors of collider experiments. This analysis explores such models by searching for chargino decays that result in tracks with few associated hits in the outer region of the tracking system. The transverse-momentum spectrum of candidate tracks is found to be consistent with the expectation from the Standard Model background processes and constraints on chargino properties are obtained. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

A search for resonances produced in 7 TeV proton-proton collisions and decaying into top-quark pairs is described. In this Letter events where the top-quark decay produces two massive jets with large transverse momenta recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider are considered. Two techniques that rely on jet substructure are used to separate top-quark jets from those arising from light quarks and gluons. In addition, each massive jet is required to have evidence of an associated bottom-quark decay. The data are consistent with the Standard Model, and limits can be set on the production cross section times branching fraction of a Z′ boson and a Kaluza-Klein gluon resonance. These limits exclude, at the 95% credibility level, Z′ bosons with masses 0.70-1.00 TeV as well as 1.28-1.32 TeV and Kaluza-Klein gluons with masses 0.70-1.62 TeV. © 2013 Cern for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration.

Abstract:

A measurement of the Λb0 lifetime and mass in the decay channel Λb0→J/ψ(μ+μ-)Λ0(pπ -) is presented. The analysis uses a signal sample of about 2200 Λb0 and Λ̄b0 decays that are reconstructed in 4.9 fb -1 of ATLAS pp collision data collected in 2011 at the LHC center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. A simultaneous mass and decay time maximum likelihood fit is used to extract the Λb0 lifetime and mass. They are measured to be τΛb=1.449±0.036(stat) ±0.017(syst) ps and mΛb=5619.7±0. 7(stat)±1.1(syst) MeV.