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Measurement of the associated productionof a Z boson and b quarksin proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeVwith the CMS experiment at LHC
Candelise, Vieri
2014-03-14
Contributor(s)
Cossutti, Fabio
Abstract
The aim of the thesis work is the measurement of the associated production of a Z boson and b quarks with the 2012 collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at 8 TeV in proton-proton collisions at LHC. The importance of this physics process comes from the understanding of the perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics calculation schemes of the b quark content inside the proton and how this quark is extracted in the collision. Thus, the Z+b physics can be used for many relevant Standard Model measurements, such as the Z+b polarization asymmetry and the Higgs boson to b quarks background description. Nevertheless, many New Physics scenarios predict new particles decaying into Z+b or have enhanced Z+b cross sections, and for these reasons this process is considered as one of the most promising Standard Model final states to be used in searches at LHC. I have focused my attention on the development of the code needed to perform the analysis for the Z+b observables measured with the CMS data. First, I have built up the analysis framework for the selection of a Z boson decaying into muons and electrons, the jets characterization, and the implementation and study on the b-jets tagging. Then I have studied the various backgrounds and developed a strategy to extract the relative b-quark, c-quark and light flavour components from the Monte Carlo simulation by fitting the relative templates. A specific study on the estimation of the contamination of top quark pairs in the analysis has been done employing a data driven technique with an electron plus muon pairs final state with enhanced missing energy. In order to compare the results obtained in data with the different theoretical predictions of the b quark production in proton collisions, many unfolding techniques have been tested, and checks on the applied methods have been done using several Monte Carlo predictions. Finally, the evaluation of all the systematic sources of error has been quoted and added in the presentation of the final results. The differential cross sections of pp to Z+b process have been measured as a function of the leading b-jet momentum and pseudorapidity, the Z boson momentum, the angular difference between the Z boson and the leading b-jet, and the sum of all the jet momenta in the event. Then, the cross section ratio between the Z+b and the Z+jets processes has been calculated as a function of the observables mentioned above. All the results have been compared with the available theoretical calculations in perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics.
Insegnamento
Publisher
Università degli studi di Trieste
Languages
en
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