KONSTANTINIDIS1	Search for new physics through Higgs-pair production with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC
Type	Experimental
# students	1
Orientation	The discovery of the Higgs boson has opened new opportunities for searching for new physics at the LHC. One such possibility is to search for enhanced Higgs-pair production, either from the decay of a heavier new particle or through new interactions, beyond what is predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics. The observation of such an enhancement would be a major breakthrough in our quest to understand the ultimate theory that describes our universe and its evolution after the Big Bang.
How	The project will involve simulation studies for understanding the level of expected backgrounds and for optimizing the signal-to-background ratio of this analysis, in preparation for the high-energy running of the LHC in 2015, at centre-of-mass energies of 13-14TeV.
What	The student will use existing simulated signal events and LHC data to look for new algorithms and quantities that can provide improved discrimination between signal and background and will investigate various machine learning techniques, such as Boosted Decision Trees and Artificial Neural Networks, to combine several discriminating variables in the most optimal way.
Special Knowlegde	This work requires good level of (ideally) C++ or (at least) Java.
Supervisor	Prof. Nikos Konstantinidis n.konstantinidis@ucl.ac.uk