Boosted heavy quarks as probe of new physics at the LHC

by Elin Bergeaas Kuutmann (Uppsala university)

Tuesday 13 Oct 2015, 13:15 → 15:00 Europe/Stockholm

FB42

Run I of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) lasted between 2010 and 2012. During this time, many interesting physics measurements were made by the LHC experiments, and numerous scenarios for physics beyond the Standard Model were excluded. Now Run II of the LHC is ongoing, with a markedly higher centre-of-mass collision energy. In order to use the full potential of the LHC, it is important to exploit also the high-energy tail of the proton-proton collisions. In the colloquium, I will briefly describe some of the main techniques which have been used by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC to reconstruct very high-energy particles ("boosted objects"), especially top quarks. Examples from Run I searches for heavy new exotic particles will be given. Models discussed will include extra dimensions, new heavy gauge bosons and vector-like quarks. The importance of boosted reconstruction techniques in comparison with more conventional methods will be emphasised, and prospects for Run II discussed.