Systematic uncertainties in the measurements of $D^{*+}$ mesons in 7 TeV $pp$ collisions at ALICE

Abstract

Multiple studies into the quark-gluon plasma (QGP) state are underway, using the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The QGP is important as it is understood to be the state the universe was in for a few milliseconds after the big bang. This thesis outlines why the \dmes meson plays a role in QGP research and describes a possible disagreement between measurement and predictions made by perturbative Quantum Chromodynamics.

The main contribution of this thesis is an analysis of the systematic uncertainties in \dmes yields from 7 TeV $pp$ collisions measured in the ALICE detector. The systematic uncertainty is analyzed by varying a range of parameters when extracting the raw \dmes yield from the data, and observing the variation in this yield. The results show an assigned systematic in agreement with the statistical variation in the data. Additionally, a 'pure' systematic that is not dependant on statistical variations in the data is discussed. The presented method works entirely automatically and is applicable to other data sets at higher energies.