Search for New Physics in Events with a High Energy Photon, Electron and Large Missing Transverse Energy in pp Collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV

This thesis describes a search for new physics using data collected with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment operating at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The search was performed using events with a high energy photon, electron and large missing transverse energy. The data sample used in this analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.6 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV produced at the Large Hadron Collider and collected by the CMS detector. The final state for this analysis is motivated by the theory of general gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking but is also sensitive to any new physics producing massive particles with a photon and electron in the final state. The dominant standard model backgrounds to this search include quantum chromodynamics processes and electroweak processes involving $W^{\pm}$ bosons. An excess of events with large missing transverse energy as compared to the standard model expectation would indicate new physics. However, no excess of events is observed and the data is interpreted within a simplified supersymmetry model.