PhD defense Tim Wolf @ UvA

2018-12-14 12:00 | 2018-12-14 13:00

“Higgs from top to bottom – Discovery of the Higgs boson coupling to top quarks with the ATLAS detector”

Tim Wolf, promovendus aan het Nikhef, verdedigt zijn proefschrift vrijdag 14 december 2018 aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam.

“This thesis presents a comprehensive overview about Higgs boson analyses in the context of its coupling to top quarks during run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Top quarks are the “heavy brothers” of the subatomic particles which make up the matter which surround us. The Higgs mechanism claims that the heavier an elementary particle is, the stronger is its connection to the Higgs boson. In data of proton-proton collisions provided by the LHC and recorded by the ATLAS detector, it could now be established that indeed the top quark and the Higgs boson have a connection. This represents a remarkable confirmation of the predictions of the Higgs mechanism. However, new physics scenarios in the Higgs sector which could cause deviations from the predictions of the Higgs mechanism cannot be ruled out with the current uncertainties on the measurements.

This result is only possible by combining different analyses which separately target the Higgs boson and top quark connection. Of particular interest in this thesis is a specific decay of the Higgs boson into bottom quarks. The main challenges of this analysis are the efficient usage of Monte Carlos prediction and the quality of the background prediction. Both of these aspects are also addressed in the manuscript.”

Higgs from top to bottom – Discovery of the Higgs boson coupling to top quarks with the ATLAS detector (pdf)

De promotie vindt plaats om 12.00 in de Agnietenkapel, Oudezijds Voorburgwal 229 – 231, Amsterdam.

Promotor: prof. dr. S.C.M. Bentvelsen
Co-promotoren: dr. P. Ferrari, prof. dr. ing. B. van Eijk

contact: Tim Wolf