Measurement of the Standard Model $W^{+}W^{-}$ production cross-section using the ATLAS experiment on the LHC

Measurements of di-boson production cross-sections are an important part of the physics programme at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. These physics analyses provide the opportunity to probe the electroweak sector of the Standard Model at the TeV scale and could also indicate the existence of new particles or probe beyond the Standard Model physics. The excellent performance of the LHC through years 2011 and 2012 allowed for very competitive measurements. This thesis provides a comprehensive overview of the experimental considerations and methods used in the measurement of the W⁺W⁻ production cross-section in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The treatise covers the material in great detail, starting with the introduction of the theoretical framework of the Standard Model and follows with an extensive discussion of the methods implemented in recording and reconstructing physics events in an experiment of this magnitude. The associated online and offline software tools are included in the discussion. The relevant experiments are covered, including a very detailed section about the ATLAS detector. The final chapter of this thesis contains a detailed description of the analysis of the W-pair production in the leptonic decay channels using the datasets recorded by the ATLAS experiment during 2011 and 2012 (Run I). The analyses use 4.60 fb⁻¹ recorded at √s = 7 TeV and 20.28 fb⁻¹ recorded at 8 TeV. The experimentally measured cross section for the production of W bosons at the ATLAS experiment is consistently enhanced compared to the predictions of the Standard Model at centre-of-mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV. The thesis concludes with the presentation of differential cross-section measurement results.