The search for the pair production of second-generation scalar leptoquarks and measurements of the differential cross sections of the W boson produced in association with jets with the CMS detector at the LHC

Since the formulation of the Standard Model of particle physics, numerous experiments have sought to observe the signatures of the subatomic particles by examining the outcomes of charged particle collisions. Over time, advances in detector technology and scientific computing have allowed for unprecedented precision measurements of Standard Model phenomena and particle properties. Although the Standard Model has displayed remarkable predictive power, extensions to the Standard Model have been formulated to account for unexplained phenomena, and these extensions often infer the existence of additional subatomic particles. Consequently, experiments at particle colliders often endeavor to search for signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model. These searches and measurements are often complementary pursuits, as searches are often limited by the precision of estimations of the Standard Model backgrounds. At the forefront of present-day collider experiments is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which delivers proton-proton collisions with unprecedented energy and luminosity. Collisions are recorded with detectors located at interaction points along the ring of the Large Hadron Collider. The CMS detector is one of two general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider, and the high-precision detection of particles from collision events in the CMS detector make the CMS detector a powerful tool for both Standard-Model measurements and searches for new physics. The Standard Model is characterized by three generation of quarks and leptons. This correspondence between the generations of quarks and leptons is necessary to allow for the renormalizability of the Standard Model, but it is not an inherent property of the Standard Model. Motivated by this compelling symmetry, many theories and models propose the existence of leptoquark bosons which mediate transitions between quarks and leptons. Experimental constraints indicate that leptoquarks would couple to a single generation, and this thesis describes searches for leptoquarks produced in pairs and decaying to final states containing either two muons and two jets, or one muon, one muon-neutrino, and two jets. Searches are conducted with collision data at center-of-mass energies of both 7 TeV and 8 TeV. No compelling evidence for the existence of leptoquarks is found, and upper limits on the leptoquark mass and cross section are placed at the 95% confidence level. These limits are the most stringent to date, and are several times larger than limits placed previously at hadron collider experiments. While the pair production of massive leptoquark bosons yields final states which have strong kinematic differences from the Standard Model processes, the ability to exploit these differences is limited by the ability to accurately model the backgrounds. The most notable of these backgrounds is the production of a W boson in association with one or more jets. Since the W+jets process has a very large cross section and a final state containing missing energy, its contribution to the total Standard Model background is both nominally large and more difficult to discriminate against than backgrounds with only visible final state objects. Furthermore, estimates of this background are not easily improved by comparisons with data in control regions, and simulations of the background are often limited to leading-order predictions. To improve the understanding and modeling of this background for future endeavors, this thesis also presents measurements of the W+jets process differentially as a function of several variables, including the jet multiplicity, the individual jet transverse momenta and pseudorapidities, the angular separation between the jets and the muon, and the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of all jets. The agreement of these measurements with respect to predictions from event leading-order generators and next-to-leading-order calculations is assessed.