# A Search for Exotic Particles

My Ph.D. dissertation, performed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Abstract: A search for exotic particles decaying via WZ to final states with electrons and muons is performed using a data sample of pp collisions collected at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.98 inverse femtobarns. A cross section measurement for the production of WZ is also performed on a subset of the collision data. No significant excess is observed over the Standard Model background, so lower bounds at the 95% confidence level are set on the production cross sections of hypothetical particles decaying to WZ in several theoretical scenarios. Assuming the Sequential Standard Model, W’ bosons with masses below 1143 GeV are excluded. New limits are also set for several configurations of Low-Scale Technicolor.

I have put the LaTeX source on GitHub, along with a style file that should be reuasable for others preparing a UW-Madison dissertation. I hope others find it helpful as a jumping-off point.

The official version is available as a record on the CERN Document Server. I also produced a single-spaced two-column version suitable for printing and a trade size for ordering a few bound copies on lulu.com.