Subject Area
Physics
Abstract
In this thesis, a search is presented for the pair production of Higgs bosons in a final state containing two same-charge light leptons (e/$\mu$) and one opposite-charge hadronically decaying tau lepton ($\tau_{h}$). The search is based on a data sample of proton-proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 (2015-2018) of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 140 fb$^{-1}$. The Standard Model predicts that the Higgs potential has a non-zero expectation value leading to the spontaneous breaking of electroweak symmetry and when some fundamental particles (for example leptons, W and Z bosons) interact with the Higgs field they gain mass. The measurement of the Higgs boson self-interaction directly enables the study of Higgs potential. Furthermore, any deviation from the predicted Standard Model value will suggest the existence of new physics. The pair production of the Higgs boson is sensitive to the Higgs boson self-coupling, thus its study is critical for our understanding of particle physics.
Degree Date
Summer 8-5-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Department
Physics
Advisor
Allison Deiana
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Allison Deiana, for her exceptional guidance, expertise, and unwavering support throughout my graduate school journey. I am also deeply thankful to Dr. Bartlomiej Henryk Zabinski, Dr. Katharine Leney, Dr. Rohin Narayan, and Dr. Santosh Parajuli for their valuable feedback, encouragement, and insightful discussions. I would further like to extend my appreciation to the members of the ATLAS Collaboration, especially the Di-Higgs Multilepton team, for their support and collaboration. I am grateful to my thesis committee members Dr. Ryszard Stroynowski, Dr. Matthew Klein, and Dr. Haleh K. Hadavand for their time and constructive feedback on my dissertation. Their insights have been instrumental in shaping this work. I also sincerely acknowledge Dr.Hadavand for providing early mentorship and support during my undergraduate research journey, which laid a strong foundation for my graduate studies. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their unwavering support and encouragement throughout my academic journey. Your belief in me has been a constant source of strength and motivation.
Number of Pages
110
Format
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
Recommended Citation
Bataju, Susan, "Search for Higgs Boson Pair Production in the Two Light Leptons and One Tau Final State Using Proton-Proton Collision Data With $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV at the LHC From the ATLAS Detector" (2025). Physics Theses and Dissertations. 21.
https://scholar.smu.edu/hum_sci_physics_etds/21
