This thesis deals with two main procedures performed with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The noise description in the hadronic calorimeter TileCal represents a very valuable technical job. The second part presents a fruitful physics analysis - the cross section measurement of the process p+p → Z0 → τ + τ. The Monte Carlo simulations of the TileCal are described in the first part of the thesis, including a detailed treatment of the electronic noise and multiple interactions (so-called pile-up). An accurate description of both is crucial for the reconstruction of e.g. jets or hadronic tau-jets. The second part reports a Standard Model measurement of the Z0 → τ + τ process with the emphasis on the final state with an electron and a hadronically decaying tau-lepton. The Z0 → τ + τ channel forms the dominant background in the search for Higgs bosons decaying into tau lepton pairs, and thus the good understanding achieved here can facilitate more sensitive Higgs detection.

Tests of the current understanding of physics at the highest energies achievable in man-made experiments are performed at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. In the theory of the strong force within the Standard Model of particle physics - Quantum ChromoDynamics or QCD - confined quarks and gluons from the proton-proton scattering manifest themselves as groups of collimated particles. These particles are clustered into physically measurable objects called hadronic jets. As jets are widely produced at hadron colliders, they are the key physics objects for an early "rediscovery of QCD". This thesis presents the first jet measurement from the ATLAS Collaboration at the LHC and confronts the experimental challenges of precision measurements. Inclusive jet cross section data are then used to improve the knowledge of the momentum distribution of quarks and gluons within the proton and of the magnitude of the strong force.

This book provides a general description of the search for and discovery of the Higgs boson (particle) at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The goal is to provide a relatively brief overview of the issues, instruments and techniques relevant for this search; written by a physicist who was directly involved. The Higgs boson mat be the one particle that was studied the most before its discovery and the story from postulation in 1964 to detection in 2012 is a fascinating one. The story is told here while detailing the fundamentals of particle physics.

This second open access volume of the handbook series deals with detectors, large experimental facilities and data handling, both for accelerator and non-accelerator based experiments. It also covers applications in medicine and life sciences. A joint CERN-Springer initiative, the "Particle Physics Reference Library" provides revised and updated contributions based on previously published material in the well-known Landolt-Boernstein series on particle physics, accelerators and detectors (volumes 21A, B1,B2,C), which took stock of the field approximately one decade ago. Central to this new initiative is publication under full open access

The recent observation of the Higgs boson has been hailed as the scientific discovery of the century and led to the 2013 Nobel Prize in physics. This book describes the detailed science behind the decades-long search for this elusive particle at the Large Electron Positron Collider at CERN and at the Tevatron at Fermilab and its subsequent discovery and characterization at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. Written by physicists who played leading roles in this epic search and discovery, this book is an authoritative and pedagogical exposition of the portrait of the Higgs boson that has emerged from a large number of experimental measurements. As the first of its kind, this book should be of interest to graduate students and researchers in particle physics.

The Standard Theory of Particle Physics describes successfully the observed strong and electroweak interactions, but it is not a final theory of physics, since many aspects are not understood: (1) How can gravity be introduced in the Standard Theory? (2) How can we understand the observed masses of the leptons and quarks as well as the flavor mixing angles? (3) Why are the masses of the neutrinos much smaller than the masses of the charged leptons? (4) Is the new boson, discovered at CERN, the Higgs boson of the Standard Theory or an excited weak boson? (5) Are there new symmetries at very high energy, e.g. a broken supersymmetry? (6) Are the leptons and quarks point-like or composite particles? (7) Are the leptons and quarks at very small distances one-dimensional objects, e.g. superstrings? This proceedings volume comprises papers written by the invited speakers discussing the many important issues of the new physics to be discovered at the Large Hadron Collider.

This thesis presents a search for long-lived particles decaying into displaced electrons and/or muons with large impact parameters. This signature provides unique sensitivity to the production of theoretical lepton-partners, sleptons. These particles are a feature of supersymmetric theories, which seek to address unanswered questions in nature. The signature searched for in this thesis is difficult to identify, and in fact, this is the first time it has been probed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It covers a long-standing gap in coverage of possible new physics signatures. This thesis describes the special reconstruction and identification algorithms used to select leptons with large impact parameters and the details of the background estimation. The results are consistent with background, so limits on slepton masses and lifetimes in this model are calculated at 95% CL, drastically improving on the previous best limits from the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP).