A search for the production of a single top quark in association with a Z boson is presented, both to identify the expected standard model process and to search for flavour-changing neutral current interactions. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse-femtobarns recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV. Final states with three leptons (electrons or muons) and at least one jet are investigated. An events yield compatible with tZq standard model production is observed, and the corresponding cross section is measured to be sigma(p p -> t Z q -> l nu b l+ l- q) = 10 +8/-7 fb with a significance of 2.4 standard deviations. No presence of flavour-changing neutral current production of tZq is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the branching fractions of a top quark decaying to a Z boson and an up or a charm quark are found to be B(t -> Z u) 0.022% and B(t - Z c)

Measurements of the cross sections for top quark pairs produced in association with a W or Z boson are presented, using 8 TeV pp collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 fb-1, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. We found that final states are selected in which the associated W boson decays to a charged lepton and a neutrino or the Z boson decays to two charged leptons. Signal events are identified by matching reconstructed objects in the detector to specific final state particles from tt-W or tt-Z decays. The tt-W cross section is measured to be 382+117 -102 fb with a significance of 4.8 standard deviations from the background-only hypothesis. The tt-Z cross section is measured to be 242+65 -55 fb with a significance of 6.4 standard deviations from the background-only hypothesis. These measurements are used to set bounds on five anomalous dimension-six operators that would affect the tt-W and tt-Z cross sections.

With the LHC proton-proton collision data at an energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector, this analysis searches for the production of a new particle W' with a yet-to-be-probed mass in the top quark plus bottom quark decay channel. The boosted and hadronically decaying top-quark is reconstructed as a large-radius jet and identified using jet substructures. A secondary-vertex finding algorithm identifies small-radius jets originating from a bottom quark. After the identification stage, the main background events come from the Quantum Chromodynamical production of multi-jet, which is estimated by a data-driven approach. The statistical data analysis searches for a resonant peak in the invariant mass distribution of the system with a jet associated with the top quark and another with the bottom quark. The consistency between data and the background prediction is found in the invariant mass range between 1 TeV to 7 TeV, and an upper limit at the 95% confidence level is set on the production cross-section times branching ratio for a W' boson with right-handed chirality decaying to a top quark and a bottom quark. A lower limit on the W' mass is set at 4.4 TeV accordingly.

"This thesis presents the measurements of the differential production cross-sections of a Z boson in association with at least one charm-quark-initiated jet, where the Z boson decays leptonically into a muon-antimuon pair. Data recorded in proton-proton collisions by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during the years of 2015 to 2018 is utilised, when the LHC was running at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV. The studied data corresponds to a total integrated luminosity of 139 fb^-1. The measurements are compared to simulated data produced at next-to-leading-order and normalized to theoretical predictions at next-to-next-leading order. The results show that predictions underestimate the total number of events by 50% but display a good modelling of all distribution shapes of the chosen observables in data. The discrepancy can be attributed to a problem in the normalisation but further studies need to be made to settle the issue"--