Study of the Higgs boson discovery potential in the process pp→Hqq, H→_t63_t63 [H→tau-tau] with the ATLAS detector [Elektronische Ressource] / Manfred Groh

Manfred Groh

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• Physik

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• Publié par: technische_universitat_munchen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2009
• Nombre de lectures: 16
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

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¨TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT
¨MUNCHEN
Max-Planck-Institut fu¨r Physik
(Werner-Heisenberg-Institut)
Study of the Higgs Boson Discovery Potential
+ −in the Process pp→ Hqq, H→ τ τ
with the ATLAS Detector
Manfred Groh
Vollsta¨ndiger Abdruck der von der Fakulta¨t fu¨r Physik
der Technischen Universita¨t Mu¨nchen zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines
Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.)
genehmigten Dissertation.
Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. A. Ibarra
¨Prufer der Dissertation:
1. Priv.-Doz. Dr. H. Kroha
2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. L. Oberauer
Die Dissertation wurde am 26.03.2009 bei der Technischen Universita¨t Mu¨nchen eingereicht und
durch die Fakulta¨t fu¨r Physik am 27.04.2009 angenommen.PHYSIK-DEPARTMENT
Study of the Higgs Boson Discovery Potential
+ −in the Process pp→ Hqq, H→ τ τ
with the ATLAS Detector
Dissertation
von
Manfred Groh
7. Mai 2009
¨ ¨Technische Universitat MunchenAbstract
The subject of this work is the evaluation of the discovery potential of the ATLAS detector at the
Large Hadron Collider for the Standard Model Higgs boson in vector-boson fusion production and
a subsequent decay into aτ-lepton pair. This is one of the most promising discovery channels of the
Higgs boson in the low mass range, which is the mass range favored from precision measurements
of the electroweak interaction. The decay modes where both τ leptons decay leptonically and
where one τ lepton decays leptonically and the other one hadronically are studied in this thesis.
The main objective was to investigate possible improvements upon earlier cut-based analyses by
using additional discriminating variables as well as by applying multivariate analysis methods
which take into account correlations between the variables. The variables are carefully selected in
order to avoid correlations with the reconstructed invariant ττ mass.
In an intermediate step, the sequential signal selection cuts have been optimized for maximum
signal significance. With this strategy, one can expect to discover the Higgs boson with ≥ 5σ
−1significance in the mass range 115 GeV≤ m ≤ 135 GeV with an integrated luminosity of 30 fbH
corresponding to the first three years of ATLAS operation. The maximum signal significance of
5.9σ is obtained for a Higgs mass of 120 GeV.
Significant further improvement was found with multivariate selection methods. The best results
are obtained with an Artificial Neural Network algorithm. The mass range for the ≥ 5σ Higgs
−1discovery with 30 fb is extended to 110 GeV with a maximum signal significance of 6.5σ at
m = 125 GeV.H
Systematic uncertainties are studied in detail for both methods and are included in the above
predictions of the signal significance. The largest uncertainty is due to the jet energy scale. In
the case of using only Monte Carlo simulations for estimating the background, the uncertainties
on the detector performance lead to a big loss in discovery potential. It is demonstrated that a
reliable method for background estimation from real data is essential. In this case, the systematic
uncertainties on the expected signal significance are about 10 % for both analysis methods.Acknowledgements
Let me devote this page to all the people who supported my work during the last years.
First, I want to express my gratitude to my supervisor Hubert Kroha for giving me the opportunity
to do both my diploma and my PhD thesis in the MDT group at MPI. I thank him for his supervi-
sion of the thesis, for providing the means and giving me the possibility to become part of the team
building up such a fascinating experiment as the ATLAS detector, for providing me the chance to
participate in schools, workshops, seminars and many interesting conferences.
I thank Susanne Mohrdieck-Mo¨ck, Oliver Kortner, Jo¨rg Dubbert and especially Sandra Horvat
for introducing me to the field of experimental high energy physics and guiding me through the
last years. All of them showed much patience with me and always took the time to discuss my
thoughts, no matter how busy they were. Many thanks to Steffen Kaiser for his support especially
during the last weeks.
Thank you to all the members of the MDT group for creating the stimulating and pleasant atmo-
sphere, the coffee in the morning, the Cheeseburgers and Spezis, the beers, bars and Schnitzels,
for the tabletennis matches and much more.
Bei all meinen Freunden bedanke ich mich fu¨r ihre Unterstu¨tzung, das Interesse an meiner Arbeit
und deren Fortschritt sowie dafu¨r, dass sie trotz meiner eingeschra¨nkten Zeit uneingeschra¨nkt
hinter mir gestanden haben. Fu¨r die Hilfe beim Korrekturlesen und Ausdrucken mo¨chte ich mich
außerdem ganz herzlich bei Martin Mu¨hlegger bedanken.
Meiner Familie, speziell meinen Eltern Magdalena und Bruno Groh, gebu¨hrt ganz besonderer
Dank fu¨r den Ru¨ckhalt, den sie mir wa¨hrend der letzten nun schon fast 30 Jahre gegeben haben
und dafu¨r, dass sie mir mein Studium ermo¨glicht haben.
Unmo¨glich in Worte zu fassen will ich trotzdem meinen unendlichen Dank dem allerwichtigsten
Menschen in meinem Leben aussprechen: meiner Irene. Trotz ihrer eigenen Arbeitsbelastung und
ihres Studiums hat sie mich immer in allen allta¨glichen und nicht allta¨glichen Dingen unterstu¨tzt
und mir die Kraft und die Geborgenheit gegeben, ohne die diese Arbeit nicht mo¨glich gewesen
wa¨re. Ganz besonders danke ich ihr fu¨r ihr Versta¨ndnis, wenn ich aufgrund meiner zahlreichen
Aufenthalte am CERN oder bei Konferenzen, sowie vor allem in den letzten Monaten nur sehr
wenig Zeit mit ihr verbringen konnte.Contents
1 Introduction 1
2 Theoretical Background 3
2.1 The Standard Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2.2 The Higgs Boson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.1 Limits on the Higgs Boson Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2.2.2 Higgs Boson Production Mechanisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.2.3 Higgs Boson Decay Channels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
3 The LHC and ATLAS 15
3.1 The Large Hadron Collider . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.2 The ATLAS Experiment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2.1 Physics Goals and Detector Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2.2 The ATLAS Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.2.3 The ATLAS Detector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
4 Installation and Commissioning of the ATLAS Muon Chambers 27
4.1 Chamber Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.1 MDT Chamber Sag Adjustment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.2 Tests After Chamber Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2 Commissioning of the Muon Spectrometer with Cosmic Muons . . . . . . . . . 32
4.2.1 Drift Tube Efficiency Measurement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.2 Reconstruction of Cosmic Muon Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.2.3 Alignment with Straight Muon Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.2.4 Curved Muon Tracks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
5 The Search for the Higgs Boson 41
5.1 Signal and Background Processes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
5.1.1 Monte Carlo Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
5.1.2 Detector Simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
5.2 Detector Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.2.1 Trigger Efficiency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
5.2.2 Electron Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.2.3 Muon Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
ixx CONTENTS
5.2.4 Jet Reconstruction Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.2.5 τ Jet Reconstruction Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
5.2.6 b Jet Identification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.2.7 Missing Energy Reconstruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
5.3 Reconstruction of the Higgs Mass . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
5.4 Event Selection Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4.1 τ-Decay Products Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
5.4.2 Tagging Jets Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.4.3 Overall Event Topology (Jets and τ-Decay Products) Criteria . . . . . . . 80
6 Optimization of the Signal Selection 87
6.1 Composition of the Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.2 Preselection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
6.3 Signal-to-Background Ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
6.4 Treatment of Correlations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.4.1 Parallel Cut Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
6.4.2 Iterative Cut Optimization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .