Single top quark $t$-channel cross section measurement at ATLAS using a cut-based technique

The top quark is the heaviest fundamental particle discovered to date. Most top quarks are produced in pairs via the strong interaction, but a significant fraction are produced in electroweak interactions that result in a single top quark in the final state. There are three electroweak single top production processes: the $t$ and $s$ channels along with the production of a top in association with a $W$ boson. This dissertation presents a measurement of the $t$-channel cross section using 4.7 fb$^{-1}$ of 7 TeV data collected at the Large Hadron Collider by the ATLAS detector. After a series of cuts are performed to select a sample of single top events and isolate events with properties characteristic of the $t$-channel, a likelihood fit is performed using event characteristics that distinguish between signal and background processes. The $t$-channel cross section is found to be $80.1 \pm 3.2 \mathrm{(stat)} \pm ^{11.2}_{11.3} \mathrm{(syst)}$ pb, in reasonable agreement with Standard Model predictions.