Multi-model inference ranking and applications to physics at the Large Hadron Collider

In the measurement of the Higgs Boson decaying into two photons the parametrization of an appropriate background model is essential for fitting the Higgs signal mass peak over a continuous background. This diphoton background modeling is crucial in the statistical process of calculating exclusion limits and the significance of observations in comparison to a background-only hypothesis. It is therefore ideal to obtain knowledge of the physical shape for the background mass distribution as the use of an improper function can lead to biases in the observed limits. Using an Information-Theoretic (I-T) approach for valid inference we apply Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) as a measure of the separation for a fitting model from the data. We then implement a multi-model inference ranking method to build a fit-model that closest represents the Standard Model background in 2013 diphoton data recorded by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Potential applications and extensions of this model-selection technique are discussed with reference to CMS detector performance measurements as well as in potential physics analyses at future detectors.

I. Baryon-antibaryon phase transition at high temperature. II. Inclusive virtual photon-hadron reactions in the parton model

Part I

Present experimental data on nucleon-antinucleon scattering allow a study of the possibility of a phase transition in a nucleon-antinucleon gas at high temperature. Estimates can be made of the general behavior of the elastic phase shifts without resorting to theoretical derivation. A phase transition which separates nucleons from antinucleons is found at about 280 MeV in the approximation of the second virial coefficient to the free energy of the gas.

Part II

The parton model is used to derive scaling laws for the hadrons observed in deep inelastic electron-nucleon scattering which lie in the fragmentation region of the virtual photon. Scaling relations are obtained in the Bjorken and Regge regions. It is proposed that the distribution functions become independent of both q² and ν where the Bjorken and Regge regions overlap. The quark density functions are discussed in the limit x→1 for the nucleon octet and the pseudoscalar mesons. Under certain plausible assumptions it is found that only one or two quarks of the six types of quarks and antiquarks have an appreciable density function in the limit x→1. This has implications for the quark fragmentation functions near the large momentum boundary of their fragmentation region. These results are used to propose a method of measuring the proton and neutron quark density functions for all x by making measurements on inclusively produced hadrons in electroproduction only. Implications are also discussed for the hadrons produced in electron-positron annihilation.

Studies of Zγ production and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV

In this thesis, we test the electroweak sector of the Standard Model of particle physics through the measurements of the cross section of the simultaneous production of the neutral weak boson Z and photon γ, and the limits on the anomalous Zγγ and ZZγ triple gauge couplings h3 and h4 with the Z decaying to leptons (electrons and muons). We analyze events collected in proton-proton collisions at center of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarn. The analyzed events were recorded by the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011.

The production cross section has been measured for hard photons with transverse momentum greater than 15 GeV that are separated from the the final state leptons in the eta-phi plane by Delta R greater than 0.7, whose sum of the transverse energy of hadrons over the transverse energy of the photon in a cone around the photon with Delta R less than 0.3 is less than 0.5, and with the invariant mass of the dilepton system greater than 50 GeV. The measured cross section value is 5.33 +/- 0.08 (stat.) +/- 0.25 (syst.) +/- 0.12 (lumi.) picobarn. This is compatible with the Standard Model prediction that includes next-to-leading-order QCD contributions: 5.45 +/- 0.27 picobarn.

The measured 95 % confidence-level upper limits on the absolute values of the anomalous couplings h3 and h4 are 0.01 and 8.8E-5 for the Zγγ interactions, and, 8.6E-3 and 8.0E-5 for the ZZγ interactions. These values are also compatible with the Standard Model where they vanish in the tree-level approximation. They extend the sensitivity of the 2012 results from the ATLAS collaboration based on 1.02 inverse femtobarn of data by a factor of 2.4 to 3.1.

Search for heavy neutral resonances in the dielectron channel with the CMS detector at the LHC

A search for dielectron decays of heavy neutral resonances has been performed using proton-proton collision data collected at √s = 7 TeV by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in 2011. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb⁻¹. The dielectron mass distribution is consistent with Standard Model (SM) predictions. An upper limit on the ratio of the cross section times branching fraction of new bosons, normalized to the cross section times branching fraction of the Z boson, is set at the 95 % confidence level. This result is translated into limits on the mass of new neutral particles at the level of 2120 GeV for the Z′ in the Sequential Standard Model, 1810 GeV for the superstring-inspired Z′_ψ resonance, and 1940 (1640) GeV for Kaluza-Klein gravitons with the coupling parameter k/M_Pl of 0.10 (0.05).

Baryon number violation beyond the standard model

This thesis describes simple extensions of the standard model with new sources of baryon number violation but no proton decay. The motivation for constructing such theories comes from the shortcomings of the standard model to explain the generation of baryon asymmetry in the universe, and from the absence of experimental evidence for proton decay. However, lack of any direct evidence for baryon number violation in general puts strong bounds on the naturalness of some of those models and favors theories with suppressed baryon number violation below the TeV scale. The initial part of the thesis concentrates on investigating models containing new scalars responsible for baryon number breaking. A model with new color sextet scalars is analyzed in more detail. Apart from generating cosmological baryon number, it gives nontrivial predictions for the neutron-antineutron oscillations, the electric dipole moment of the neutron, and neutral meson mixing. The second model discussed in the thesis contains a new scalar leptoquark. Although this model predicts mainly lepton flavor violation and a nonzero electric dipole moment of the electron, it includes, in its original form, baryon number violating nonrenormalizable dimension-five operators triggering proton decay. Imposing an appropriate discrete symmetry forbids such operators. Finally, a supersymmetric model with gauged baryon and lepton numbers is proposed. It provides a natural explanation for proton stability and predicts lepton number violating processes below the supersymmetry breaking scale, which can be tested at the Large Hadron Collider. The dark matter candidate in this model carries baryon number and can be searched for in direct detection experiments as well. The thesis is completed by constructing and briefly discussing a minimal extension of the standard model with gauged baryon, lepton, and flavor symmetries.

A measurement of B0-B0 mixing in e+e- annihilation at 29 GeV

This thesis describes a measurement of B⁰- B⁰ mixing in events produced by electron-positron annihilation at a center of mass energy of 29 GeV. The data were taken by the Mark II detector in the PEP storage ring at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center between 1981 and 1987, and correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 224pb^-1.

We used a new method, based on the kinematics of hadronic events containing two leptons, to provide a measurement of the probability, x, that a hadron, initially containing a b (b) quark decays to a positive (negative) lepton to be X = 0.17^+0.15_-0.08, with 90% confidence level upper and lower limits of 0.38 and 0.06, respectively, including all estimated systematic errors. Because of the good separation of signal and background, this result is relatively insensitive to various systematic effects which have complicated previous measurements.

We interpret this result as evidence for the mixing of neutral B mesons. Based on existing B⁰_d mixing rate measurements, and some assumptions about the fractions of B⁰_d and B⁰_s mesons present in the data, this result favors maximal mixing of B⁰_s mesons, although it cannot rule out zero B⁰_s mixing at the 90% confidence level.

The astrophysics of strongly interacting systems

This thesis presents investigations in four areas of theoretical astrophysics: the production of sterile neutrino dark matter in the early Universe, the evolution of small-scale baryon perturbations during the epoch of cosmological recombination, the effect of primordial magnetic fields on the redshifted 21-cm emission from the pre-reionization era, and the nonlinear stability of tidally deformed neutron stars.

In the first part of the thesis, we study the asymmetry-driven resonant production of 7 keV-scale sterile neutrino dark matter in the primordial Universe at temperatures T >~ 100 MeV. We report final DM phase space densities that are robust to uncertainties in the nature of the quark-hadron transition. We give transfer functions for cosmological density fluctuations that are useful for N-body simulations. We also provide a public code for the production calculation.

In the second part of the thesis, we study the instability of small-scale baryon pressure sound waves during cosmological recombination. We show that for relevant wavenumbers, inhomogenous recombination is driven by the transport of ionizing continuum and Lyman-alpha photons. We find a maximum growth factor less than ≈ 1.2 in 10⁷ random realizations of initial conditions. The low growth factors are due to the relatively short duration of the recombination epoch.

In the third part of the thesis, we propose a method of measuring weak magnetic fields, of order 10^-19 G (or 10^-21 G if scaled to the present day), with large coherence lengths in the inter galactic medium prior to and during the epoch of cosmic reionization. The method utilizes the Larmor precession of spin-polarized neutral hydrogen in the triplet state of the hyperfine transition. We perform detailed calculations of the microphysics behind this effect, and take into account all the processes that affect the hyperfine transition, including radiative decays, collisions, and optical pumping by Lyman-alpha photons.

In the final part of the thesis, we study the non-linear effects of tidal deformations of neutron stars (NS) in a compact binary. We compute the largest three- and four-mode couplings among the tidal mode and high-order p- and g-modes of similar radial wavenumber. We demonstrate the near-exact cancellation of their effects, and resolve the question of the stability of the tidally deformed NS to leading order. This result is significant for the extraction of binary parameters from gravitational wave observations.

The statistical bootstrap model

A review is presented of the statistical bootstrap model of Hagedorn and Frautschi. This model is an attempt to apply the methods of statistical mechanics in high-energy physics, while treating all hadron states (stable or unstable) on an equal footing. A statistical calculation of the resonance spectrum on this basis leads to an exponentially rising level density ρ(m) ~ cm^-3 e^βom at high masses.

In the present work, explicit formulae are given for the asymptotic dependence of the level density on quantum numbers, in various cases. Hamer and Frautschi's model for a realistic hadron spectrum is described.

A statistical model for hadron reactions is then put forward, analogous to the Bohr compound nucleus model in nuclear physics, which makes use of this level density. Some general features of resonance decay are predicted. The model is applied to the process of NN annihilation at rest with overall success, and explains the high final state pion multiplicity, together with the low individual branching ratios into two-body final states, which are characteristic of the process. For more general reactions, the model needs modification to take account of correlation effects. Nevertheless it is capable of explaining the phenomenon of limited transverse momenta, and the exponential decrease in the production frequency of heavy particles with their mass, as shown by Hagedorn. Frautschi's results on "Ericson fluctuations" in hadron physics are outlined briefly. The value of β_o required in all these applications is consistently around [120 MeV]^-1 corresponding to a "resonance volume" whose radius is very close to ƛ_π. The construction of a "multiperipheral cluster model" for high-energy collisions is advocated.

Search for Higgs Boson Production Beyond the Standard Model Using the Razor Kinematic Variables in pp Collisions at √s=8 TeV and Optimization of Higgs Boson Identification Using a Quantum Annealer

In the first part of this thesis we search for beyond the Standard Model physics through the search for anomalous production of the Higgs boson using the razor kinematic variables. We search for anomalous Higgs boson production using proton-proton collisions at center of mass energy √s=8 TeV collected by the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.8 fb^-1.

In the second part we present a novel method for using a quantum annealer to train a classifier to recognize events containing a Higgs boson decaying to two photons. We train that classifier using simulated proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV producing either a Standard Model Higgs boson decaying to two photons or a non-resonant Standard Model process that produces a two photon final state.

The production mechanisms of the Higgs boson are precisely predicted by the Standard Model based on its association with the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. We measure the yield of Higgs bosons decaying to two photons in kinematic regions predicted to have very little contribution from a Standard Model Higgs boson and search for an excess of events, which would be evidence of either non-standard production or non-standard properties of the Higgs boson. We divide the events into disjoint categories based on kinematic properties and the presence of additional b-quarks produced in the collisions. In each of these disjoint categories, we use the razor kinematic variables to characterize events with topological configurations incompatible with typical configurations found from standard model production of the Higgs boson.

We observe an excess of events with di-photon invariant mass compatible with the Higgs boson mass and localized in a small region of the razor plane. We observe 5 events with a predicted background of 0.54 ± 0.28, which observation has a p-value of 10^-3 and a local significance of 3.35σ. This background prediction comes from 0.48 predicted non-resonant background events and 0.07 predicted SM higgs boson events. We proceed to investigate the properties of this excess, finding that it provides a very compelling peak in the di-photon invariant mass distribution and is physically separated in the razor plane from predicted background. Using another method of measuring the background and significance of the excess, we find a 2.5σ deviation from the Standard Model hypothesis over a broader range of the razor plane.

In the second part of the thesis we transform the problem of training a classifier to distinguish events with a Higgs boson decaying to two photons from events with other sources of photon pairs into the Hamiltonian of a spin system, the ground state of which is the best classifier. We then use a quantum annealer to find the ground state of this Hamiltonian and train the classifier. We find that we are able to do this successfully in less than 400 annealing runs for a problem of median difficulty at the largest problem size considered. The networks trained in this manner exhibit good classification performance, competitive with the more complicated machine learning techniques, and are highly resistant to overtraining. We also find that the nature of the training gives access to additional solutions that can be used to improve the classification performance by up to 1.2% in some regions.