This thesis reports on the first studies of Standard Model photon production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using the ATLAS detector. Standard Model photon production is a large background in the search for Higgs bosons decaying into photon pairs, and is thus critical to understand. The thesis explains the techniques used to reconstruct and identify photon candidates using the ATLAS detector, and describes a measurement of the production cross section for isolated prompt photons. The thesis also describes a search for the Higgs boson in which the analysis techniques used in the measurement are exploited to reduce and estimate non-prompt backgrounds in diphoton events.

The Large Hadron Collider will allow studies of [gamma][gamma] and photoproduction interactions at energies significantly higher than previous experiments, in both pp and heavy ion collisions. In this article, studies of the feasibility of measuring [gamma][gamma] 2!ll−, [gamma]p 2![Upsilon]p 2!ll−p, and [gamma]A 2![Upsilon]A 2!l+l−A processes in early LHC data with the CMS detector are presented.

This work covers the required mathematical and theoretical tools required for understanding the Standard Model of particle physics. It explains the accelerator and detector physics which are needed for the experiments that underpin the Standard Model.

The work presented in this book is based on the proton-proton collision data from the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the ATLAS detector in 2015 and 2016. The research program of the ATLAS experiment includes the precise measurement of the parameters of the Standard Model, and the search for signals of physics beyond the SM. Both these approaches are pursued in this thesis, which presents two different analyses: the measurement of the Higgs boson mass in the di-photon decay channel, and the search for production of supersymmetric particles (gluinos, squarks or winos) in a final state containing two photons and missing transverse momentum. Finally, ATLAS detector performance studies, which are key ingredients for the two analyses outlined before, are also carried out and described.

This book mainly focuses on the study of photon + 3 jets final state in Proton-Proton Collisions at √s = 7TeV, searching for patterns of two (or more) distinct hard scatterings in the same collision, i.e the so-called Double Parton Scattering (DPS). A new method by using Monte Carlo generators was performed and provides higher order corrections to the description of the Single Parton Scattering (SPS) background. Further it is investigated whether additional contributions from DPS can improve the agreement between the measured data and the Monte Carlo predictions. The current theoretical uncertainties related to the SPS background are found to be larger than expectation. At the same time a rich set of DPS-sensitive measurements is reported for possible further interpretation.

This book is about the dark photon which is a new gauge boson whose existence has been conjectured. Due to its interaction with the ordinary, visible photon, such a particle can be experimentally detected via specific signatures. In this book, the authors review the physics of the dark photon from the theoretical and experimental point of view. They discuss the difference between the massive and the massless case, highlighting how the two phenomena arise from the same vector portal between the dark and the visible sector. A review of the cosmological and astrophysical observations is provided, together with the connection to dark matter physics. Then, a perspective on current and future experimental limits on the parameters of the massless and massive dark photon is given, as well as the related bounds on milli-charged fermions. The book is intended for graduate students and young researchers who are embarking on dark photon research, and offers them a clear and up-to-date introduction to the subject.

Exploring the phenomenology of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, LHC Physics focuses on the first years of data collected at the LHC as well as the experimental and theoretical tools involved. It discusses a broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical activity in particle physics, from the searches for the Higgs boson and physics beyond t