Sensitivity of ATLAS to Alternative Mechanisms of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking in Vector Boson Scattering qq → qqlνlν

Abstract

An analysis of the expected sensitivity of the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN to alternative mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking in the dileptonic vector boson scattering channel is presented. With the generalized K-Matrix model of vector boson scattering recently implemented in the event generator Whizard, several additional resonances are investigated. Whizard is validated for ATLAS use and an interface for the Les Houches event format is adapted for the ATLAS software Athena. Systematic model and statistical Monte Carlo uncertainties are reduced with a signal definition using events reweighted in the couplings g of the new resonances. Angular correlations conserved by Whizard are used in the event selection. A multivariate analyzer is trained to take into account correlations between the selection variables and thereby to improve the sensitivity compared to cut analyses. The statistical analysis is implemented with a profile likelihood method taking into account systematic uncertainties and statistical uncertainties from Monte Carlo. Ensemble tests are performed to assure the applicability of the method. Expected discovery significances and coupling limits for new additional resonances in vector boson scattering are determined.