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Two Complementary Strategies for New Physics Searches at Lepton Colliders (open access)

Two Complementary Strategies for New Physics Searches at Lepton Colliders

In this thesis I present two complementary strategies for probing beyond-the-Standard Model physics using data collected in e{sup +}e{sup -} collisions at lepton colliders. One strategy involves searching for effects at low energy mediated by new particles at the TeV mass scale, at which new physics is expected to manifest. Several new physics scenarios, including Supersymmetry and models with leptoquarks or compositeness, may lead to observable rates for charged lepton-flavor violating processes, which are forbidden in the Standard Model. I present a search for lepton-flavor violating decays of the {Upsilon}(3S) using data collected with the BABAR detector. This study establishes the 90% confidence level upper limits BF({Upsilon}(3S) {yields} e{tau}) < 5.0 x 10{sup -6} and BF({Upsilon}(3S) {yields} {mu}{tau}) < 4.1 x 10{sup -6} which are used to place constraints on new physics contributing to lepton-flavor violation at the TeV mass scale. An alternative strategy is to increase the collision energy above the threshold for new particles and produce them directly. I discuss research and development efforts aimed at producing a vertex tracker which achieves the physics performance required of a high energy lepton collider. A small-scale vertex tracker prototype is constructed using Silicon sensors of 50 {mu}m thickness and tested …
Date: July 6, 2009
Creator: Hooberman, Benjamin Henry
System: The UNT Digital Library