Search for New Physics in Electron-Positron Interactions with Photons in the Final State

Abstract

This thesis describes a measurement of single and multi-photon events with missing energy in electron-positron interactions. The results have been used to measure the neutrino pair-production cross section and to determine the number of light neutrino species. A search for various kinds of new physics processes involving photons and missing energy in the final state like the production of supersymmetric particles, a fermiophobic Higgs boson and massive gravitons has been carried out. The analysis has been performed using data collected with the L3 detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies between 130 GeV and 190 GeV corresponding to a total luminosity of 265 1/pb. The cross section of the process electron positron to neutrino anti-neutrino photon (photon) for a photon energy larger than 5 GeV and a photon scattering angle with respect to the beam axis larger than 14 degrees at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV has been measured to be (5.25 +- 0.22 +- 0.07) pb and has been extrapolated to a total cross section for neutrino pair-production yielding (58.3 +- 2.7) pb. The measured photon energy spectra have been used to derive the number of light neutrino species. The combined value determined from all data analysed in this thesis is 3.05 +- 0.11 +- 0.04, which is in good agreement with the hypothesis of three light neutrino types and supports the Standard Model with its three generations of particles. Since no indication for the appearance of new physics processes has been found, upper limits on cross sections of new particle production have been set and lower limits on particle masses have been derived assuming three neutrino generations. If the gravitino is the lightest supersymmetric particle and all other SUSY particles are too heavy to be created at LEP energies, gravitino pair-production could be the only process involving SUSY particles accessible at LEP. From an analysis of the process electron positron to gravitino gravitino photon, a lower limit of 8.9 times 10 to the power -6 eV has been determined at the 95% confidence level. Cross section limits have been set depending on the masses of the particles involved in neutralino gravitino production and neutralino pair-production and neutralino decay to gravitino and photon, and for the production of the lightest and second lightest neutralino and pair-production of the second lightest neutralino and its decay to lightest neutralino and photon. Within the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking a lower limit on the neutralino mass of 88.2 GeV at the 95% confidence level has been derived under the assumption that the lightest neutralino is the second lightest supersymmetric particle. Fermiophobic Higgs bosons have been searched for investigating the process electron positron to Higgs Z to photon photon neutrino anti-neutrino. Cross section bounds on this process have been determined depending on the Higgs mass and limits on the branching ratio of the Higgs decaying into photons have been derived. A lower mass limit for such a fermiophobic Higgs boson is set to 89.9 GeV at the 95% confidence level. A search for the production of massive gravitons in quantum gravity models with extra spatial dimensions has been performed investigating the process electron positron to graviton photon. Lower limits on the energy scale ranging from 1018 GeV to 349 GeV have been derived at the 95% confidence level for two to ten extra dimensions. Their size has been limited to at most 0.46 mm and to at most 8.3 times 10 to the power -13 mm for two and ten extra dimensions, respectively.