New Physics Signals of the Electroweak Chiral Lagrangian in Vector Boson Scattering at the LHC

The Standard Model of fundamental interactions, albeit an incredibly elegant andsuccessful theory, lacks explanations for some experimental and theoretical open questions.Interestingly, many of these problems seem to be related to the electroweak symmetrybreaking sector of the theory, whose dynamical generation is still unknown. Importantquestions such as what is the true nature of the Higgs boson, why is its massso light and so close to that of the electroweak gauge bosons or whether the propertiesof this particle are the ones predicted in the Standard Model remain unanswered. TheLHC is our tool to unveil these mysteries and vector boson scattering processes are theperfect window to access them, since they are considered as the most sensitive observablesto new physics in the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. In this Thesis weemploy the effective electroweak chiral Lagrangian with a light Higgs, which assumesa strongly interacting electroweak symmetry breaking sector, to perform a model independentanalysis of the phenomenology of vector boson scattering processes at the LHCas well as to present quantitative predictions for the sensitivity to possible beyond theStandard Model physics scenarios.