Studies of b-associated production and muonic decays of neutral Higgs bosons at the ATLAS experiment within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

This thesis presents a Monte Carlo study of neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) decaying into muons at the Atlas experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Signal and background processes are simulated using novel Monte Carlo generators that incorporate parts of higher order corrections and are expected to give a more accurate prediction than previous programs. The SHERPA Monte Carlo generator is validated for its use in the analysis and compared to results obtained with other programs. Where possible, the Monte Carlo event samples are normalized to higher order calculations. To increase the available Monte Carlo statistics, this study is based on the ATLAS fast detector simulation ATLFAST. Differences between ATLFAST and the detailed detector simulation of ATLAS are examined, and, where possible, correction procedures are devised. A cut based analysis is performed assuming an integrated luminosity of 30 inverse femtobarns, and optimized with respect to the discovery potential for MSSM Higgs bosons. The systematic uncertainties of the event selection and the Monte Carlo predictions are estimated. A method that can be used to estimate the background from data is presented and evaluated. Last, the discovery potential of the \Atlas experiment in the CP conserving benchmark scenarios of the MSSM is evaluated. One or more of the neutral Higgs bosons of the MSSM can be discovered in the muonic decay mode using 30 inverse femtobarns of data for low masses of the pseudoscalar boson A, if the model parameter tan(beta) is at least 20. For higher masses of the A, tan(beta) would need to be significantly higher to ensure a discovery in the studied decay channel. The sensitivity of ATLAS to MSSM Higgs bosons is multiple times larger than the one of previous and currently running experiments.

Level thesis:degree_level

thesis.doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher

Technische Universität Dresden

Year

2008

Author dc:creator

• Warsinsky, Markus

Contributors dc:contributor

• Kobel, Michael
• Schumacher, Markus
• Krauss, Frank

• Higgs
• MSSM
• LHC
• ATLAS
• Muon
• b-Quark
• Monte-Carlo
• Myon