Exotic resonances and Higgs production at the LHC

This thesis concerns the search for the Higgs boson and other previously-unobserved heavy particles. The currently-known elementary particles and their interactions are described by the Standard Model, which is a quantum field theory containing electromagnetism, the weak force, and the strong force. The following sections will introduce the elementary particles, their interactions, and the need for spon- taneous symmetry breaking in the theory.