Measurements of the φ∗ηdistribution of Z → µ+µ- events inpp¯ collisions at √s = 1.96 TeVand measurements of the isolateddiphoton cross section in ppcollisions at √s = 8 TeV

Abstract

Two precision measurements have been performed using the large number of dileptonand diphoton events produced in pp¯ and pp collisions. A measurement of thedistribution of the kinematic variable φ∗ηin the Drell-Yan process is performed inbins of boson rapidity and invariant mass using 10.4 fb-1 data collected by the D0experiment with a centre-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV in pp¯ collisions. φ∗η, definedin terms of lepton track directions, is well-measured and is sensitive to higher ordereffects in Quantum chromodynamics (QCD). Data are compared to predictions fromstate-of-the-art QCD Monte Carlo programs and are in good agreement. Measurementsof the production of prompt photon pairs are performed using 20.24 fb-1 datacollected by the ATLAS experiment at 8 TeV in pp collisions. QCD Monte Carloprograms including higher order effects are found to describe the data. In addition,a luminosity algorithm that renders its susceptibility to noise and inefficiency of certainmodules in the diamond beam monitor has been proposed and validated usingATLAS simulations.

Date of Award	31 Dec 2016
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Terence Wyatt (Supervisor) & Michael Seymour (Supervisor)