Professor Claire Gwenlan

Abstract:

This paper describes searches for the pair production of first or second generation scalar leptoquarks using 35pb-1 of proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at √s=7TeV. Leptoquarks are searched in events with two oppositely-charged muons or electrons and at least two jets, and in events with one muon or electron, missing transverse momentum and at least two jets. After event selection, the observed yields are consistent with the predicted backgrounds. Leptoquark production is excluded at the 95 CL for masses MLQ<376 (319) GeV and MLQ<422 (362) GeV for first and second generation scalar leptoquarks, respectively, when assuming the branching fraction of a leptoquark to a charged lepton is equal to 1.0 (0.5). © 2011 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

This Letter presents a search for high mass e+e- or μ+μ- resonances in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV at the LHC. The data were recorded by the ATLAS experiment during 2010 and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of ~40 pb-1. No statistically significant excess above the Standard Model expectation is observed in the search region of dilepton invariant mass above 110 GeV. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the cross section times branching ratio of Z' resonances decaying to dielectrons and dimuons as a function of the resonance mass. A lower mass limit of 1.048 TeV on the Sequential Standard Model Z' boson is derived, as well as mass limits on Z* and E6-motivated Z' models. © 2011 CERN.

Abstract:

We present a comment on the kinematic variable mCT2 recently proposed in Won Sang Cho, Jihn E. Kim, and Ji-Hun Kim, Phys. Rev. D 81, 095010 (2010). The variable is designed to be applied to models such as R-parity conserving supersymmetry (SUSY) when there is pair production of new heavy particles each of which decays to a single massless visible and a massive invisible component. It was proposed by Cho, Kim, and Kim that a measurement of the peak of the mCT2 distribution could be used to precisely constrain the masses of the SUSY particles. We show that, for the an example characterized by direct squark decays, when standard model backgrounds are included in simulations, the sensitivity of the mCT2 variable to the SUSY particle masses is more seriously impacted for mCT2 than for other previously proposed variables. © 2011 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

Measurements of charged particle distributions, sensitive to the underlying event, have been performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are based on data collected using a minimum-bias trigger to select proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 900 GeV and 7 TeV. The "underlying event" is defined as those aspects of a hadronic interaction attributed not to the hard scattering process, but rather to the accompanying interactions of the rest of the proton. Three regions are defined in azimuthal angle with respect to the highest transverse momentum charged particle in the event, such that the region transverse to the dominant momentum-flow is most sensitive to the underlying event. In each of these regions, distributions of the charged particle multiplicity, transverse momentum density, and average pT are measured. The data show generally higher underlying event activity than that predicted by Monte Carlo models tuned to pre-LHC data. © 2011 American Physical Society.