Exclusive cone jet algorithms for high energy particle colliders

In this thesis, I develop an exclusive cone jet algorithm based on the principles of jet substructure and demonstrate its use for physics analyses at the Large Hadron Collider. Based on the event shape N-jettiness, this algorithm, called "XCone," partitions the event into a fixed number of conical jets of size RO in the rapidity-azimuth plane. This algorithm is designed to locate substructure independent of momentum, allowing accurate resolution of jets at both low and high energy scales. I present three potential analyses using XCone to search for heavy resonances, Higgs bosons, and top quarks at various momenta and show that it reconstructs these particles with efficiencies between 60% and 80% without any additional substructure techniques, and maintains this efficiency over a wide kinematic range. This algorithm provides many key advantages over traditional jet algorithms that make it appealing for use at the LHC and other high energy particle colliders.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2015

Author dc:creator

• Wilkason, Thomas Frederick, Jr

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Jesse Thaler.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/100326

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/100326