The turning-on of the Large Hadron Collider is the momentous milestone in our quest for new physics beyond the Standard Model. Soon, we will be presented with the task of detecting, identifying, and studying the possibly large parameter space of the underlying model. In this thesis, we will look at some possible extensions to the SM, their signatures at colliders, and possible search strategies to explore the new physics in a model-independent way. In chapter 2, we study the extended neutral gauge sector of the Littlest Higgs model at the 500 GeV e+e- collider using the fermion pair production and Higgs associate production channel. We find that these channels can provide an accurate determination of the fundamental parameters and thus allows the verification of the little Higgs mechanism designed to cancel the Higgs mass quadratic divergence. In chapter 3, we study the ATLAS supersymmetry searches proposed for the 14 TeV pp collider using the $\sim$ 70k models of the phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Model (pMSSM) moldel set, that have survived many theoretical and experimental constraints. Since pMSSM does not make any simplifying assumptions about its SUSY-breaking mechanism at high scale, this encompasses a broad class of Supersymmetric models. We find that even though these searches were optimized mostly for mSUGRA signals, they are relatively robust in observing the more general pMSSM models. For the case of models in which squarks and gluinos have mass below 1 TeV, essentially all of these models ($> 99\%$) were observable in at least one of these searches, with 1 $fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity allowing for an uncertainty of 50\% in the SM background. We found that 0-lepton searches are the most powerful searches, while searches with 1-2 leptons do not have coverage as good as has been shown for mSUGRA. We then study possible reasons why a model could not be observed. These difficult models mostly include those with long-lived charginos which lead to small Missing Tranverse Energy (MET) and models with squeezed spectra which lead to soft jets that fail the jet cuts. In chapter 4, we study similar searches that have been carried out by ATLAS at the 7 TeV LHC. We found that systematic uncertainty again plays an important role in determining the coverage of the searches. This is especially true for searches with a large SM background, such as $n$-jet 0 lepton searches. We study the implication of a null result from the 7 TeV LHC. We find that the degree of fine-tuning in the pMSSM depends on the prior in which we scan our 19-dimensional space, but overall it is not as large as in mSUGRA. We find that a null result at the 7 TeV with $10 fb^{-1}$ and 20\% systematic errors would imply a need for a higher energy e+e- machine than the 500 GeV ILC to study Supersymmetry. Continuing on along the line of Supersymmetry, in chapter 5 we explore the possibility of adding one more generation to the MSSM (4GMSSM). We find that the CP-odd A boson can be very light due to the contribution of the heavy 4th generation fermion loops while all other Higgs particles (including the CP-even {\it h}) are all quite heavy. The parameter $tan(\beta)$ is strongly constrained to be between 0.5 and 2 due to perturbativity requirements on Yukawa couplings. We study the electroweak constraints as well as collider signatures on the possibility of a light A of mass $\sim$115 GeV. As for an LHC discovery, we find that this light A can be seen in the standard 2-photon Higgs search channel with cross-section more than an order of magnitude greater than that of the SM Higgs. In the last two chapters, we study possible search strategies to explore the new physics in a model-independent way. In chapter 6, we attempt to show how one could be largely agnostic about the underlying model in exploring the complete kinematically-allowed parameter space of pair-produced color octet particles (with mass $m_{\tilde{g}}$) that each directly decay into two jets plus a neutral stable particle (with mass $m_{\tilde{B}}$) that would escape the detectors and appear as MET. The kinematics of this process can be completely described by two parameters $m_{\tilde {g}}$ and $m_{\tilde {B}}$ , and in particular their splitting determines the softness or hardness of jets from the decay products. In order to cover the whole parameter space, one would need separate searches for different regions. We show that optimizing the final cuts for every ($m_{\tilde {g}}$, $m_{\tilde {B}}$) point, and combining all searches, can extend the coverage significantly. Since this is just based on the kinematics of the decay, this result can be easily interpreted for any model with this decay topology. In chapter 7, we carry this model-independent approach further in jets plus missing energy searches, by proposing that one should bin the measured data (or simulated SM background) differentially in MET and $H_T$ (scalar sum of invisible energy) for each search, and use them to set limits on any model of interest. We demonstrate this technique by carrying out a search similar to that studied in chapter 6, with one added decay step for the color octet particle, mainly it decays to 2 jets and another particle (with mass $m_{\tilde {W}}$) and it in turn decays to the neutral stable particle and 2 jets. We study different kinematic regions and set bounds in this 3-dimensional parameter space ($m_{\tilde {g}}$, $m_{\tilde {W}}$, $m_{\tilde {B}}$).

A detailed overview of the physics of high-energy colliders emphasising the role of QCD.

An accessible look at the hottest topic in physics and the experiments that will transform our understanding of the universe The biggest news in science today is the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle-smasher, and the anticipation of finally discovering the Higgs boson particle. But what is the Higgs boson and why is it often referred to as the God Particle? Why are the Higgs and the LHC so important? Getting a handle on the science behind the LHC can be difficult for anyone without an advanced degree in particle physics, but you don't need to go back to school to learn about it. In Collider, award-winning physicist Paul Halpern provides you with the tools you need to understand what the LHC is and what it hopes to discover. Comprehensive, accessible guide to the theory, history, and science behind experimental high-energy physics Explains why particle physics could well be on the verge of some of its greatest breakthroughs, changing what we think we know about quarks, string theory, dark matter, dark energy, and the fundamentals of modern physics Tells you why the theoretical Higgs boson is often referred to as the God particle and how its discovery could change our understanding of the universe Clearly explains why fears that the LHC could create a miniature black hole that could swallow up the Earth amount to a tempest in a very tiny teapot "Best of 2009 Sci-Tech Books (Physics)"-Library Journal "Halpern makes the search for mysterious particles pertinent and exciting by explaining clearly what we don't know about the universe, and offering a hopeful outlook for future research."-Publishers Weekly Includes a new author preface, "The Fate of the Large Hadron Collider and the Future of High-Energy Physics" The world will not come to an end any time soon, but we may learn a lot more about it in the blink of an eye. Read Collider and find out what, when, and how.

Describes the technology and engineering of the Large Hadron collider (LHC), one of the greatest scientific marvels of this young 21st century. This book traces the feat of its construction, written by the head scientists involved, placed into the context of the scientific goals and principles.

This doctoral thesis focuses on the search for new phenomena in top-antitop quark (tt) final states with additional b-quark jets at the LHC. It uses the full Run 1 dataset collected by the ATLAS experiment in proton-proton collisions at √s=8 TeV. The final state of interest consists of an isolated lepton, a neutrino and at least six jets with at least four b-tagged jets, a challenging experimental signature owing to the large background from tt+heavy-flavor production. This final state is characteristic of ttH production, with the Higgs boson decaying into bb, a process that allows direct probing of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. This signature is also present in many extensions of the Standard Model that have been proposed as solutions to the hierarchy problem, such as supersymmetry or composite Higgs models, which predict the pair production of bosonic or fermionic top quark partners, or the anomalous production of four-top-quark events. All these physics processes have been searched for using an ambitious search strategy that has been developed on the basis of a combination of state-of-art theoretical predictions and a sophisticated statistical analysis to constrain in-situ the large background uncertainties. As a result, the most restrictive bounds to date on the above physics processes have been obtained.

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.

‘Witty, approachable and captivating’ - Robin Ince ‘A fascinating exploration of how we learned what matter really is’ - Sean Carroll ‘A delightfully fresh and accessible approach to one of the great quests of science’ - Graham Farmelo ‘Lays out not just what we know, but how we found out (and what is left to be discovered’ - Katie Mack ‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe’ - Carl Sagan Inspired by Sagan’s famous line, How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch sets out on a journey to unearth everything we know about our universe: how it started, how we found out, and what we still have left to discover. Will we ever be able to understand the very first moments of the world we inhabit? What is matter really made of? How did anything survive the fearsome heat of the Big Bang? In pursuit of answers, we meet the scientists, astronomers and philosophers who brought us to our present understanding of the world – offering readers a front-row seat to the most dramatic journey human beings have ever embarked on. Harry Cliff's How To Make An Apple Pie From Scratch is an essential, fresh and funny guide to how we got to where we are now – and what we have to come.