FAPESP Paragraphs

Methodology

The methodology to be used in this project follows the standard procedures used
in other high energy physics analyses. Proton-proton collision data will be
delivered by the LHC and collected by CMS; due to the impossibility of
collecting data from all the collisions, trigger algorithms will be deployed on
the online computer cluster to do a quasi-realtime analysis of the data,
selecting interesting events to be stored in permanent media.

Collision data will be reconstructed and reduced to the standard formats used by
the CMS collaboration, based on the ROOT framework. The standard techniques of
charged particle tracking, calorimetric energy measurement and global event
description~\cite{} will be used to reconstruct the outgoing particles from the
collision. Simulated samples, both for standard model background processes and
new physics signals, will be generated with the standard software packages of
the field~\cite{} and subject to the same reconstruct procedures.

Both simulated and collision data will be used to develop and optimise a
selection procedure that maximizes the separation between prospective new
physics candidate events and standard model background. At the same time, a
background estimation procedure will be established, through the usage of
control samples produced through variations of the selection procedure.
Statistical compatibility tests~\cite{} between the selected sample and the
estimated background will be used to yield confidence intervals and upper limits
on the cross-section of a selected set of benchmark new physics models.

Schedule PhD

\begin{itemize}
\item\textbf{First year:} basic graduate Physics courses: Quantum Mechanics,
Field Theory, Particle Physics. Complementary studies on data reduction and
analysis frameworks, particle accelerators and detectors.
\item\textbf{Second year:} advanced graduate Physics courses: renormalization,
the standard model of Particle Physics. Advanced complementary studies.
Literature review of the field: the need for physics beyond the standard model,
the astronomical and cosmological evidences for dark matter.
\item\textbf{Third year:} long-term stay at CERN. Participation in CMS
operations -- commissioning, data-taking, service work. Choice of analysis --
experimental signature and baseline models. Feasibility studies. Simulation of
signal samples, signal-background comparisons, analysis optimisation.
\item\textbf{Fourth year:} data reduction and analysis. Participation in CMS
operations -- service work. Statistical data treatment. Writing the scientific
paper. Presentation of the results in conferences. Writing the thesis.
\end{itemize}

-- trtomei - 2018-06-04