Detection of High Energy Particles & Jets From Higgs Decays at the International Linear Collider

Abstract

The Standard Model is among the most successful and accurate physical theories ever devised. It distills all known physics (except gravity) down to interactions between just seventeen 17 fundamental particles. It was completed in 2012 with the discovery of the Higgs, a particle closely tied to the mechanism that gives particles mass, and is by far the least understood piece of the Standard Model. To remedy this, a new particle collider called the International Linear Collider (ILC) is being planned to act as a ‘Higgs Factory.’ My thesis focuses on optimizing one of the ILC’s detectors, examining how the replacement of the old low-resolution design with a new high-resolution design improves the measurement of the Higgs through studies of simulations. There are tradeoffs, but I show that the new design works at least as well as the old and identify several specific areas in which it presents an opportunity for significant improvement. The implementation of this design would thus allow the ILC to make a better measurement of the Higgs and further increase our understanding of fundamental physics.