Probing The Three Gauge-boson Couplings in 14 TeV Proton-Proton Collisions

The potential for probing the Standard Model of elementary particle physics by measuring the interactions of W-bosons with Z0-bosons and photons (WW and WWZ triple gauge-boson couplings) using TeV-scale proton-proton collisions is described in the context of the ATLAS detector at the 14 TeV Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The ATLAS detector and LHC are currently under construction at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), with the first data expected in 2006. New analysis techniques are presented in this thesis: (1) A new strategy for placing limits on the consistency of measured anomalous triple gauge-boson coupling parameters with the Standard Model is presented. The strategy removes the ambiguities of form factors, by reporting the limits as a function of a cutoff operating on the diboson system invariant mass. (2) The `optimal observables' analysis strategy is investigated in the context of hadron colliders, and found to be not competitive, as compared to other strategies. (3) Techniques for measuring the energy dependence of anomalous couplings are presented. Assuming the triple gauge-boson couplings are consistent with the Standard Model, the expected 95% condence intervals for anomalous couplings are -0:0033(stat), -0:0012(syst) < lambda_gamma < +0:0033(stat), +0:0012(syst) -0:0065(stat), -0:0032(syst) < lambda_Z < +0:0066(stat), +0:0031(syst) -0:073(stat), -0:015(syst) < Delta kappa_gamma < +0:076(stat), +0:0076(syst) -0:10(stat), -0:024(syst) < Delta kappa_Z < +0:12(stat), +0:024(syst) -0:00(64stat), -0:0058(syst) < Delta g1_Z < +0:010(stat), +0:0058(syst) for 30 fb-1 (about 3 years) of integrated low luminosity LHC data. In addition, a new phenomenological method for simulating higher order quantum chromodynamics corrections to hadronic processes using Monte Carlo techniques, called the phase space veto method, is presented. The method allows for the incorporation of next-to-leading order (NLO) matrix elements into showering and hadronization event generators, while avoiding double-counting and providing unweighted event generation. To demonstrate the method, an event generator using the phase space veto method for the process pp(pbar) -> + X -> lepton(+) lepton(-) + X at NLO is constructed and interfaced consistently to a general purpose showering and hadronization simulation package.