A Novel Search for Exotic Decays of the Higgs Boson with the ATLAS Detector and Enhancing the Physics Potential of the Large Hadron Collider and Atom Interferometers with New Techniques

Fundamental physics research aims to understand the theory of particle interactions, the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics being the current best theory of the electroweak and strong forces. Modern efforts seeks to explain phenomenon like the matter antimatter asymmetry of the universe and the nature of dark matter using various experimental modalities such as terrestrial particle colliders like the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The ATLAS detector on the LHC is conducting a diverse physics program of precision SM measurements and searches for Physics beyond the SM using deeply inelastic scattering products to study fundamental physics. The original research presented here uses proton collision data from the ATLAS detector to search for an exotic decay mode of the Higgs boson coupling to a new light scalar field. Additionally, two research projects are presented to improve the performance of the ATLAS detector. The first introduces a novel algorithm to improve the efficiency of locating interesting physics within saved events. The second improves the jet calibration procedure by enabling the use of gradient based regression with a novel objective function along with a unified neural network based framework. Additionally, a network of quantum sensors are in development to enhance the physics reach of modern detectors and expand the set of models of new physics that can be experimentally probed. One such technology is atomic gradiometer interferometric sensors, like the MAGIS-100 experiment, that utilize matter waves to search for ultralight bosonic dark matter. The research and development of a novel light field imaging device is presented here for the MAGIS-100 experiment, as part of a burgeoning collaboration between the high energy physics (HEP) and the atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics communities.