Professor Chris Hays

Abstract:

We report on a measurement of the top-quark electric charge in ttbar events in which one W boson originating from the top-quark pair decays into leptons and the other into hadrons. The event sample was collected by the CDF II detector in sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV proton-antiproton collisions and corresponds to 5.6 fb^(-1). We find the data to be consistent with the standard model and exclude the existence of an exotic quark with -4/3 electric charge and mass of the conventional top quark at the 99% confidence level.

Abstract:

We report on a search for Bs0→μ+μ- and B0→μ+μ- decays using proton-antiproton collision data at √s=1.96 TeV corresponding to 10 fb-1 of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The observed number of B0 candidates is consistent with background-only expectations and yields an upper limit on the branching fraction of B(B0→μ+μ-)<4.6×10-9 at 95% confidence level. We observe an excess of Bs0 candidates. The probability that the background processes alone could produce such an excess or larger is 0.94%. The probability that the combination of background and the expected standard model rate of Bs0→μ+μ- could produce such an excess or larger is 6.8%. These data are used to determine a branching fraction B(Bs0→μ+μ-)=(1.3-0.7+0.9) ×10-8 and provide an upper limit of B(Bs0→μ +μ-)<3.1×10-8 at 95% confidence level. © 2013 American Physical Society.

Abstract:

A search is performed for WH production with a light Higgs boson decaying to hidden-sector particles resulting in clusters of collimated electrons, known as electron-jets. The search is performed with 2.04 fb-1 of data collected in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider in proton-proton collisions at . One event satisfying the signal selection criteria is observed, which is consistent with the expected background rate. Limits on the product of the WH production cross section and the branching ratio of a Higgs boson decaying to prompt electron-jets are calculated as a function of a Higgs boson mass in the range from 100 to 140 GeV. © CERN 2013 for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration, published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence by IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation and DOI.

Abstract:

The large difference between the Planck scale and the electroweak scale, known as the hierarchy problem, is addressed in certain models through the postulate of extra spatial dimensions. A search for evidence of extra spatial dimensions in the diphoton channel has been performed using the full set of proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV recorded in 2011 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This dataset corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 fb1. The diphoton invariant mass spectrum is observed to be in good agreement with the Standard Model expectation. In the context of the model proposed by Arkani-Hamed, Dimopoulos and Dvali, 95% confidence level lower limits of between 2.52 and 3.92 TeV are set on the ultraviolet cutoff scale MS depending on the number of extra dimensions and the theoretical formalism used. In the context of the Randall-Sundrum model, a lower limit of 2.06 (1.00) TeV at 95% confidence level is set on the mass of the lightest graviton for couplings of k/MPl = 0.1(0.01). Combining with the ATLAS dilepton searches based on the 2011 data, the 95% confidence level lower limit on the Randall-Sundrum graviton mass is further tightened to 2.23 (1.03) TeV for k/ MPl= 0.1(0.01).© CERN 2013 for the benefit of the ATLAS Collaboration.

Abstract:

A search for supersymmetric particles in final states with zero, one, and two leptons, with and without jets identified as originating from b-quarks, in 4.7 fb⁻¹ of √s = 7 TeV pp collisions produced by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector is presented. The search uses a set of variables carrying information on the event kinematics transverse and parallel to the beam line that are sensitive to several topologies expected in supersymmetry. Mutually exclusive final states are defined, allowing a combination of all channels to increase the search sensitivity. No deviation from the Standard Model expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95 % confidence level on visible cross-sections for the production of new particles are extracted. Results are interpreted in the context of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model and in supersymmetry-inspired models with diverse, high-multiplicity final states.