Subjects for 2020-2021 to be announced soon

For an impression of possible subject, below you can find last year’s list:

2019-2020



1.IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory: Cosmic Rays & Hadronic Interaction Models

Supervisors: Alessio Porcelli, Stef Verpoest

Context:

Over 100 years after their discovery, the origin of cosmic rays remains uncertain. Some sources which could potentially explain the extreme energies of these particles (up to 10^20 eV) are supernova remnants and gamma ray bursts. To discern between several acceleration and propagation scenarios, it is important to accurately measure the cosmic ray composition: how many protons and/or heavier nuclei do we see at each energy? Cosmic rays with energies larger than 1 PeV can however only be indirectly observed via Extensive Air Showers (EAS), particle cascades resulting from interactions of cosmic rays in the Earth’s atmosphere. Due to the indirect measurement method, these studies depend strongly on accurate simulations of the air showers and models of the physical processes which govern their evolution. Disagreements between data and simulation as well as between several experiments hint at problems in the models that describe hadronic interactions in the showers at energies inaccessible by man-made accelerators. These problems present currently the largest uncertainties in cosmic ray composition analyses.


The IceCube Neutrino Observatory, by detecting the particles from such showers using the combination of the 1 km^3 in-ice detector and its surface component IceTop, is suited for cosmic ray studies in the PeV to EeV energy range. Moreover, for the IceCube-Gen2 project three different kinds of detectors are being installed on the surface for cosmic ray studies: an array of scintillators directly on top of IceTop tanks, an array of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes (IACT) and an array of radio antennas. Combining information from these new detectors with the existing detectors will lead us to better measurements of the energy spectrum and mass composition, as well as a more detailed understanding of the EAS and a unique way to experimentally test the hadronic interaction models.

Subjects:

Mass Composition & Hadronic Interaction Models combining IceTop and IceCube

By combining measurements of electrons, photons and low-energy muons in IceTop and high-energy muons deep inside the ice, the mass composition and energy spectrum of cosmic rays can be reconstructed. The measurement of these different air shower components also provides a unique opportunity to probe the internal consistency of the hadronic interaction models and their influence on cosmic ray composition studies. The goal of this thesis is to contribute to improving the current analysis.

First analysis combining IceTop and scintillator array measurements

With the IceCube-Gen2 upgrade, on the surface an array of scintillators is being installed just a few meters above the tanks of IceTop. They will allow a better measurement of the particle density on the ground. Combining with IceTop, an improved resolution and understanding of extensive air showers is expected. The proposed thesis will cover the combined analysis, firstly using simulations and then, possibly, the very first real data.

Electromagnetic showers from IceTop and the new IceCube-Gen2 detectors

Among the new IceCube-Gen2 detectors, an array of Imaging Air Cherenkov Telescopes called IceACT and an array of radio antennas are planned; right now, prototypes are being tested. In one year the first mini-arrays for both instalments will be in function. With both detectors it is possible to measure different observables related to the mass of the primary particle independently, but using both together will provide a complete overview of the electromagnetic component of the extensive air shower. This will lead to a multi-signal analysis able to constrain and correlate the observables, and to possible tests of the internal consistency of the hadronic interaction models from the soft component perspective. The proposed thesis will cover the first study of the combined measurement and how this information can be efficiently combined with the one provided by the IceTop array.

Energy Scale in IceTop

The calibration of IceTop’s absolute energy scale and its systematic uncertainty has a crucial role for both the mass composition and the flux measurement of cosmic rays. The importance of its precision has recently become more relevant due to the increasing interest in a meta-analysis among all cosmic rays experiments to solve the hadronic interaction models puzzle. Because of this interest and the recent improvements in IceCube analysis, the energy scale calibration must be updated with more statistics and better simulations to obtain a better precision. This challenging proposed thesis will lead the student to study this crucial feature and possibly test new approaches to improve the uncertainty on this property.

2. SoLid

Analyse van de eerste SoLid gegevens

Begeleider: Giel Vandierendonck (Giel.Vandierendonck at ugent.be)

Context:

Er zijn een aantal anomalieen in de neutrino-fysica die maar niet opgelost geraken. Zo meten experimenten systematisch enkele procenten te weinig antineutrino’s afkomstig uit kernreactoren. Een mogelijke verklaring zou kunnen zijn dat de electron-antineutrino’s snel oscilleren in een nog onbekend type neutrino dat nauwelijks met de standaard materie interageert, een zogenaamd steriel neutrino. Het bestaan van zo’n deeltje buiten het Standaard Model zou verschillende problemen in de neutrinofysica kunnen oplossen. Het SoLid (Short baseline Oscillation experiment with a Li detector) experiment is opgezet door een samenwerking van de UGent, Antwerpen, SCK-Mol, Oxford, Nantes en Caen om een nauwkeurige meting uit te voeren van de antineutrino-flux uit de BR2-onderzoeksreactor in Mol met een totaal nieuwe detectietechnologie. Sinds januari 2018 is de Phase1 detector van het SoLid experiment operationeel en bezig met het verzamelen van metingen.

Onderwerp:

Het is de bedoeling om actief deel te nemen in de analyse van SoLid. Er zal zowel met simulatie als data gewerkt moeten worden om tot een beter begrip van achtergrond en signaal te komen. Het uiteindelijke doel is om zo een meer verfijnde neutrino selectie uit de metingen te bereiken.

3. Detector R&D

Muon radiografie met behulp van gasgevulde detectoren

Begeleider: Michael Tytgat (michael.tytgat at ugent.be)

Context:

Muon radiografie is een relatief nieuwe beeldvormingstechniek, gelijkaardig aan medische radiografie, die gebruikt wordt voor het scannen van grote geologische of archeologische structuren. De deeltjesbundel, in dit geval gevormd door muonen afkomstig van het verval van kosmische straling, zal bij doorgang van materie geattenueerd worden. Een vergelijking van de geattenueerde muonbundel met de muon flux gemeten in de vrije omgeving geeft een beeld van de dichtheid van de gescande materie. Deze techniek wordt meer en meer ingezet voor het scannen van b.v. piramides, tempels, geologische breuken, vulkanen en men denkt er nu zelfs over om ze ook te gebruiken tijdens planetaires missies naar b.v. Mars.

De muondetectoren dienen over een goede plaats- en tijdsresolutie te beschikken, en moeten voldoende autonoom kunnen functioneren om als radiografie-station te kunnen dienen. In dit geval zal gebruik gemaakt worden van gasgevulde detectoren, zijnde ofwel Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) of Micropattern Gaseous Detectors (MPGDs); beide types zijn vlakke plaat detectoren met voldoende detectie-efficientie en plaatsresolutie voor deze toepassing.

Onderwerp:

Voor deze thesis wordt iemand gezocht die mee wil werken aan de ontwikkeling van een op gasdetectoren gebaseerde telescoop voor muon radiografie. In de praktijk gaat het over het ontwerp, de bouw en het karakteriseren van geschikte detectoren (RPCs/MPGDs/…) in het Gentse detectorlab. We vertrekken van gekende ontwerpen uit andere experimenten waarbij de Gentse groep betrokken is en proberen deze zodanig aan te passen dat de detectoren bruikbaar worden voor de beoogde toepassing. Belangrijk hierbij is ervoor te zorgen dat de detectoren geschikt worden voor installatie en bedrijf in de buitenlucht, op vaak verlaten en geisoleerd terrein. Gebouwde prototypes van detectoren kunnen getest worden met behulp van kosmische straling of X-stralen in het Gentse detectorlab. Indien gewenst kan er ook gewerkt worden aan computersimulaties van de gebruikte detectoren, enerzijds om het ontwerp van de telescoop te optimaliseren, anderzijds om toekomstige analyse van de metingen voor te bereiden.

Ontwikkeling en karakterisering van een nieuwe generatie gasgevulde detectoren

Begeleider: Michael Tytgat (michael.tytgat at ugent.be)

Context:

De Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in het CERN te Genève is momenteel de krachtigste deeltjesversneller ter wereld. Deze 13 TeV proton-proton botser wordt algemeen aanzien als de machine waarmee nieuwe fysica-ontdekkingen in het voordien onontgonnen energiegebied in de Teraschaal mogelijk worden. Het tot nu toe belangrijkste, wereldbekende resultaat van de LHC is de ontdekking in 2012 van het zogenaamde Higgs boson, dat aan de oorsprong ligt van de massa van elementaire deeltjes. Naar de toekomst toe wordt nu al gewerkt aan mogelijke opvolgers of complementaire machines voor de LHC. Dit gaat zowel over versnellers die nieuwe metingen met hoge precisie kunnen uitvoeren van b.v. het Higgs boson, alsook over in vergelijking met de LHC nog grotere versnellers die met een nog hogere massacentrumenergie van orde 100 TeV zullen werken.

De Gentse onderzoeksgroep Elementaire Deeltjesfysica is nauw betrokken bij het Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment aan de LHC en werkt in het bijzonder aan het detectiesysteem voor muonen. Muondetectie is heel belangrijk aangezien er tijdens de botsingen in de LHC veel muonen geproduceerd worden als vervaldeeltjes van zwaardere deeltjes, zoals het Higgs-boson. De Gentse groep werkt specifiek aan zogenaamde Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) en Gas Electron Multipliers (GEMs) detectoren in CMS; dit zijn beide dunne, vlakke plaat gasdetectoren die voor allerlei toepassingen ingezet kunnen worden en die in CMS als trigger en tracking detectoren in het muonsysteem gebruikt worden. Naast CMS is de Gentse groep ook betrokken bij de voorbereiding van nieuwe gasgevulde detectoren voor eerdervermelde toekomstige versnellers.

Onderwerp:

Voor deze thesis wordt iemand gezocht die mee wil werken aan de ontwikkeling van een nieuwe generatie van gasgevulde detectoren voor toekomstige experimenten. Specifiek wordt gewerkt aan meerdere types van detectoren. Enerzijds gaat dit over Glass-RPCs, dwz. op glas gebaseerde RPCs, waarbij we momenteel werken aan b.v. de studie van verschillende electrodematerialen, het ontwerp van grote oppervlakte detectoren, het testen van nieuwe detectorgasmengsels … Daarnaast wordt ook gewerkt aan GEM-achtige detectoren, waarbij we b.v. proberen om de tijdskarakteristieken van dergelijke detectoren te verbeteren.

In de praktijk gaat het over het ontwerp, de bouw en het karakteriseren van (kleine en grote) prototypes van detectoren. Eens de prototypes gebouwd zijn kunnen deze getest worden met behulp van kosmische straling of X-stralen in het Gentse gasdetectorlab. Er kan in dit verband ook gewerkt worden aan computersimulaties van dit soort detectoren teneinde het ontwerp en de werking ervan beter te begrijpen.
In het kader van dit project maakt de Gentse onderzoeksgroep deel uit van diverse internationale samenwerkingsverbanden; een korter of langer verblijf in een van onze partnerinstituten behoort dan ook tot de mogelijkheden bij deze thesis. Voorts neemt de groep regelmatig deel aan testmetingen van dergelijke detectoren met behulp van testbundels aan versnellers; de student kan eventueel ook meewerken aan deze metingen en aan de analyse van dergelijke meetgegevens.

4. Gravitational Waves

Context:

With the discovery of gravitational waves in 2015 a new window on the universe was opened. However, today this window is only opened to a crack: only a handful of mergers of heavy objects (black holes or neutron stars) has been observed to date. To really become an instrument to study the universe at the largest scales, gravitational wave detectors have to be taken beyond the present state of the art. In Europe a growing collaboration is now working on the design of the so-called Einstein Telescope, an observatory of the 3d generation, that will allow the observation of dozens of mergers every day. To achieve this, the ET will be a much larger instrument than the present LIGO and VIRGO observatories. It is expected to have 6 interferometers working together, located 100-200m underground, and using large Silicon mirrors cooled to cryogenic temperatures. None of this has been done before, and massive R&D is necessary to make it possible. The UGent particle physics group is member of the Flemish Einstein Telescope consortium that, together with colleagues from several Dutch institutes, is building the ET Pathfinder: a testbench to demonstrate the new technologies under construction in Maastricht.

Subject:

The student is expected to work on the design of the cryogenic system for the Si-mirrors. This is done in collaboration with a group from Twente, and under the guidance of the new professor in Gent to be hired to work on Gravitational Waves. The question is: how do you cool 200 kg of pure silicon that is suspended in vacuum by a few very thin (micron or less) wires of silicon. And all this to be done without introducing even the smallest vibration in the mirror. Oh, and while you are thinking of that problem, how do you damp the vibrations introduced by traffic, seismic noise, vacuum pumps, etc. Even the effect of the wind on trees is felt by the ultra sensitive instruments 100m below the surface!

5. CMS

Supervisors:

Didar Dobur (Didar.Dobur [at] cern.ch)
Daniele Trocino (Daniele.Trocino [at] cern.ch)
Tom Cornelis (Tom.Cornelis [at] cern.ch)
Marek Niedziela (Marek.Niedziela [at] cern.ch)
Martina Vit (Martina.Vit [at] cern.ch)
Willem Verbeke (Willem.Verbeke [at] cern.ch)
Basile Vermassen (Basile.Vermassen [at] cern.ch)

Context:

Originally completed in the 1970’s, the Standard Model of particle physics is an internally consistent and experimentally verified theory dealing with nature at its most fundamental level. Its last prediction remaining astray was the scalar Higgs Boson, the discovery of which marked the final milestone in the experimental confirmation of this elegant theory.

This monumental discovery was made at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider(LHC), constructed by a worldwide collaboration over the course of 20 years, currently the most powerful particle accelerator with energies at the TeV scale (or a million times higher than the energies of nuclear interactions!). CMS is one of two general purpose experiments intent at unearthing direct production of undiscovered particles at these prodigious energies.

While being extensively tested and having its predictions verified time and again by numerous experiments, multiple observations and the everyday experience of gravity hint at the fact that the Standard Model (SM) is not the ultimate theory of nature.

The SM is unable to cope with the elusive dark matter, the existence of which has been presumed to explain a profusion of astronomical observations over the past few decades. Another mystery the SM in its current incarnation is unable to elucidate is why our universe seems to be almost exclusively made up of matter as opposed to antimatter.

While the discovery of the Higgs boson was a triumph for the SM, with it another question arose. In the standard model this scalar boson would acquire loop corrections to its bare mass that are quadratically dependent on the cutoff energy scale. Assuming this cutoff to be at the Planck scale, where it is presumed quantum effects of gravity will become important, an inordinately large fine tuning would have to occur to explain the observed mass. A fact which might be perceived to be unnatural, and is referred to as the Hierarchy-problem.

There are several available thesis subjects focused on analyzing the many uncharted dwellings in the LHC’s data, all complementary to the research being performed in the Gent CMS group. New data, never before explored, might hold keys to unlocking secrets about the fundamental nature of nature itself! Data collected during the Run II, at the never before reached energy of 13 TeV and with unprecedented integrated luminosity, will provide a matchless opportunity for joining this expedition into the high energy frontier. Additionally to having the privilege of analyzing the LHC’s data (possibly including new particles!), you will acquire knowledge on data analysis techniques, programming in C++, ROOT, and Python. Daily supervision from the Gent CMS team will be provided during these master theses.

Searches for Supersymmetry

Among many theories attempting to address some of these unanswered questions of Standard Model is Supersymmetry (SUSY). It can be used to address the problem of dark matter and fix the hierarchy problem that afflicts the SM. SUSY is a spacetime symmetry relating fermions and bosons. In a supersymmetric theory there are an equal number of bosonic and fermionic degrees of freedom which naturally leads to cancellations between the divergent mass corrections to the Higgs boson’s bare mass. Every fermion would therefore have a bosonic partner in SUSY models and vice versa for bosons. To achieve a cancellation of the chiral anomaly arising from the fermionic partner of the Higgs, at least one other scalar doublet is required, leading to the presence of 5 or more scalar Higgs bosons in SUSY models. In order to protect the proton from decaying, R-parity conservation is introduced, leading to the stability of the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). And thus the requirement of a stable proton can lead to an excellent dark matter candidate in SUSY. SUSY, if realized in nature, would have to be a broken symmetry. An unbroken Supersymmetry would involve partners of the known particles with the same mass, which have thus far remained unobserved.

The discovery of supersymmetric particles would mark a revolutionary leap in the field of particle physics and our understanding of nature. Several searches, approaching the problem from different angles, are proposed.

Subjects:

Search for SUSY in final states with three leptons and MET

The LSP being stable and weakly interacting in most models means that, like neutrinos, it will almost always escape detection, leading to missing transverse momentum (energy) or MET. Additional to the presence of MET, the direct production of a neutralino and a chargino, the mass eigenstates of the partners of the neutral and charged electroweak and scalar bosons, can lead to signals with three leptons. Very few standard model processes can mimic this signal of three leptons produced at the primary interaction vertex (prompt leptons), the largest background being WZ production, making this an ideal topology to search for unknown particles. Any excess of events compared to what is expected in the SM might hint at the presence of something fundamentally new. The main focus will be on the optimizing the event selection for the best discovery reach, studying the SM backgrounds and obtaining the expected signal significance.

Search for SUSY using same-sign dileptons and MET

Many standard model processes, such as top quark pair production and Z boson production, can lead to two opposite sign prompt leptons. Production of a same-sign dilepton pair however is something very rare in the SM. Because of the Majorana nature of the neutral SUSY fermions, like the gluino, they have no preference for emitting a lepton of either charge during their decay. The direct production of pairs of SUSY particles might thus accommodate final states with two prompt same-sign leptons and MET, perhaps easily distinguishable from the fleeting SM background. This signal thus presents great potential for the discovery of new particles. The thesis will focus on studying the optimization of the event selection, and the study of the SM backgrounds, using the 13 TeV data from the LHC.

Search for stop, supersymmetric partner of the top quark

In the SM the Yukawa couplings of fermions to the Higgs field are directly proportional to their mass, making the top quark’s contribution to the corrections on the bare Higgs mass by far the most important among the SM fermions. Even though it’s expected to be the lightest squark in scads of models, the stop squark would inherit the top’s Yukawa coupling and shall thus be the quintessential SUSY particle for stabilizing the Higgs mass. If large fine-tuning of the Higgs mass is to be avoided, the stop squarks mass is expected to be within the LHC’s reach, making the search for stop squarks of particular interest to CMS. The analysis of this thesis will focus on studying events with two leptons and MET, which is the experimental signal expected for stop squark decay

Searches for Majorana Neutrinos

Recently a Nobel prize was awarded for the discovery of neutrino oscillations, a phenomenon strongly suggesting that neutrinos are in fact massive particles. Several experimental constraints, however, such as those from tritium decay experiments and cosmological data, constrain this mass to be extremely small, below the electronvolt (eV) scale. It might be conceived as unnatural that the Higgs mechanism would be responsible for their masses as the Yukawa couplings would have to be many orders of magnitude smaller than those of the other SM particles. By introducing new heavy, right-handed neutrinos (also called “sterile” neutrinos), the mass of the SM left-handed neutrinos can be pushed down below the eV scale, while retaining a Yukawa coupling constant similar to those of other SM particles. This is known as the see-saw mechanism.

While in the SM all free fermion fields are described by the Dirac equation, there is another option for neutral particles, devoid of all charges: the Majorana equation, which Majorana neutrinos would satisfy. As of this moment, neither the Majorana nor the Dirac nature of neutrinos has been confirmed. Dedicated experiments (such as SNO+) are intensely pursuing so-called neutrino-less double-beta decay, a manifestation of the violation of lepton number caused by Majorana neutrinos. This is a hypothetical ultra-rare nuclear decay which might directly establish the Majorana nature of the SM electron neutrino. So far no observation has been made.

If they exist in nature, sterile right-handed neutrinos might also be searched for in the LHC proton-proton collisions. W bosons, which are copiously produced at the LHC, may decay to a heavy sterile neutrino — via quantum mixing with the SM neutrinos — and a charged lepton. This leads to characteristic signatures, which can be efficiently distinguished from known SM processes. No discovery was made during the LHC Run I, nor with the first data from Run II, collected in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. But the increase in integrated luminosity from the 2017 and 2018 data taking, along with refined analysis techniques and the addition of new decay channels of the heavy neutrino, will allow us to expand the horizon of these searches.

Subjects:

Search for heavy sterile neutrinos in dilepton pairs + hadrons, with and without displaced vertices

A W might decay to a charged lepton and a sterile neutrino, which in turn might decay into another lepton and a W. In case of a hadronic decay of the second W, this will lead to signals with a same-charge or opposite-charge dilepton pair and jets. If the lifetime of the hypothetical heavy neutrino is long enough, the second lepton and the hadrons originate from a displaced vertex. Events with same-sign dileptons benefit from small background from SM processes, and the presence of a displaced vertex will reduce the background even further. The thesis will focus on studying the optimization of the event selection and the study of the SM backgrounds, using the 13 TeV data from the LHC.

Search for heavy sterile neutrinos in 3 prompt lepton final states

Considering the same events as described above with the difference that the W from the Majorana neutrino decay decays leptonically, would lead to signals with 3 leptons and MET. If the Majorana neutrino has a short enough lifetime all three leptons would be prompt, a signal that few SM processes can mimic. The main focus will be on the optimization of the event selection for the best discovery reach, studying the SM backgrounds and obtaining the expected signal significance.

Search for heavy sterile neutrinos in final states with hadronically decayed taus

Due to the short lifetime of tau leptons, they cannot be directly observed in the CMS detector. This makes them slightly more challenging objects to work with than light leptons. Most of the time, a tau lepton decays hadronically and looks more like a jet. Using dedicated techniques, we can reconstruct the original tau lepton from its decay products. The final state relevant to this thesis consists of a three-lepton final state as described above, but where at least one of the leptons is replaced by a hadronically decayed tau. This allows us to explore the coupling of a hypothetical heavy neutrino to tau leptons – a coupling that is currently largely unexplored and for which the analysis of the CMS data can make a great difference. This thesis will focus on exploring and finding the best reconstruction and identification algorithms for taus in this specific final state, as well as optimizing the event selection and studying the backgrounds.

Search for heavy sterile neutrinos in B hadron decays

Most searches for heavy sterile neutrinos focus on W boson decays. However, alternative production mechanisms can be studied. In this respect, the production of pairs of B mesons – mesons containing a b quark – is very promising: B mesons can decay to lighter mesons and an off-shell W boson, which can in turn produce a heavy neutrino. The main advantage of studying B meson pairs is their huge production rate. The detection of possible sterile neutrinos from B decays is challenging, as the decay products carry little momentum and are harder to identify. This thesis will explore the potential of searches for heavy neutrinos from B meson decays. The focus will be on event selection involving low-momentum leptons, potentially using machine learning techniques.

Search for dark matter

While searches for SUSY might be considered as dark matter searches, one can also look for direct production of other possible dark matter candidates, without involving a cascade decay of SUSY particles.

Subjects:

Search for direct dark matter production in top quark pair events

Many dark matter models predict production of dark matter particles in association with SM particles, and in particular with top quark pairs. The final states of such events would again include high MET, since the stable (or at least very long lived) dark matter particles would escape detection. This thesis would focus on the analysis of events where the top quarks decay semi-leptonically, leading to a signal of two opposite-sign prompt leptons in association with MET. The focus will be on optimizing the event selection and determining the SM backgrounds.

Top Physics

The heaviest particle in the Standard Model is the top quark. As such, its properties are very sensitive to the existence of new physics beyond the SM. If we study top-quark production in processes where they appear together with electroweak bosons, we get an excellent handle on the SM’s electroweak sector, as well as on top quark properties. These properties can be measured using a number of production modes and decay channels. We propose theses on measuring the rates of single top quark or top-quark pair production in association with W and Z bosons.

Subjects:

Precision measurement of top quark pair production in association with W and Z bosons

Several new physics models can lead to the production of multiple leptons and b-quark jets. In searches for such models, the main part of the work is generally to develop signal selection strategies that can eliminate similar events from SM processes. The production of top quark pairs in association with W or Z bosons is often the main SM background. So a good understanding of these processes by means of measuring their production rates is of paramount importance to these searches. Measurements will be performed in the three- or four-lepton channels, which provide exquisitely pure signal samples. The optimal performance can be obtained by using Multi-Variate-Analysis (MVA) techniques. The student is expected to work on further optimizing and improving these methods.

Precision Measurement of single top-quark in association with a Z boson

The production of a single top quark in combination with a Z boson was discovered for the very first time last year at CMS. This makes it one of the most recent discovered phenomena at the LHC. The rarity of the process, as well as the abundance of other processes that appear as backgrounds, made this an exceptionally challenging discovery. The key addition of a more advanced lepton identification, using machine learning techniques, made the crucial differences in this measurement. This process is highly susceptible to new physics, making it an ideal candidate to probe for a variety of theories that go beyond the Standard Model. We propose a thesis project to help improve the existing analysis techniques in the context of a new analysis that will use the full Run 2 dataset for this high-profile measurement.