Optimization of the statistical analysis in a search for Contact Interaction in the dimuon final state

This project studies search for Contact interaction, a theory beyond the standard model which predicts that quarks are no elementary particles. The constituents are bound together by a new strong force with a characteristic energy scale Λ. An optimisation of the statistical analysis is performed for contact interaction in the dimuon final state. The purpose is to optimise the analysis by comparing the discriminant power of different variables and the performance of the techniques used in the analysis. As a figure of merit the significances of different hypotheses were calculated using a profile likelihood technique. Both a shape-analysis as a single-bin analysis were performed which showed better performance from the shape analysis. Depending on the exact contact interaction model and the characteristic energy scale of the contact interaction either the invariant mass or the angular distribution yields the highest significance.