Constraints On New Phenomena Via Higgs Boson Couplings And Invisible Decays With The Atlas Detector

Constraints on New Phenomena Via Higgs Boson Couplings and Invisible Decays with the ATLAS Detector

Constraints on New Phenomena Via Higgs Boson Couplings and Invisible Decays with the ATLAS Detector

The ATLAS experiment at the LHC has measured the Higgs boson couplings and mass, and searched for invisible Higgs boson decays, using multiple production and decay channels with up to 4.7 fb-1 of pp collision data at √s=7 TeV and 20.3 fb-1 at √s=8 TeV. In the current study, the measured production and decay rates of the observed Higgs boson in the [gamma][gamma], ZZ, W W , Z[gamma], bb, [tau] [tau] , and [mu][mu] decay channels, along with results from the associated production of a Higgs boson with a top-quark pair, are used to probe the scaling of the couplings with mass. The limits are set on parameters in extensions of the Standard Model including a composite Higgs boson, an additional electroweak singlet, and two-Higgs-doublet models. Together with the measured mass of the scalar Higgs boson in the [gamma][gamma] and ZZ decay modes, a lower limit is set on the pseudoscalar Higgs boson mass of mA > 370 GeV in the "hMSSM" simplified Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Results from direct searches for heavy Higgs bosons are also interpreted in the hMSSM. Finally, direct searches for invisible Higgs boson decays in the vector-boson fusion and associated production of a Higgs boson with W/Z (Z → ll, W/Z → jj) modes are statistically combined to set an upper limit on the Higgs boson invisible branching ratio of 0.25. As a result, the use of the measured visible decay rates in a more general coupling fit improves the upper limit to 0.23, constraining a Higgs portal model of dark matter.

Search for Dark Matter Produced in Association with a Higgs Boson Decaying to Two Bottom Quarks at ATLAS

This thesis reports on the search for dark matter in data taken with the ATLAS detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The identification of dark matter and the determination of its properties are among the highest priorities in elementary particle physics and cosmology. The most likely candidate, a weakly interacting massive particle, could be produced in the high energy proton-proton collisions at the LHC. The analysis presented here is unique in looking for dark matter produced together with a Higgs boson that decays into its dominant decay mode, a pair of b quarks. If dark matter were seen in this mode, we would learn directly about the production mechanism because of the presence of the Higgs boson. This thesis develops the search technique and presents the most stringent production limit to date.