Searches for new physics with di-electrons and data management for the CMS detector at the LHC

In 2010, the CMS detector at the CERN LHC started collecting pp collision data at a centreof- mass energy ps = 7TeV with a target integrated luminosity for the first run of 1 fb􀀀1. Preparations for data taking with a particular emphasis on searches for new physics with the e+e􀀀 final state are presented. Phenomenological and detector effects relevant to searches with high Et electrons were investigated. It is found that QCD and electroweak NLO corrections to the Drell-Yan process partially cancel, and should therefore be considered together when describing the di-electron high invariant mass spectrum. A detector configuration scheme to allow high Et electrons to be correctly triggered is described. An analysis to search for high pt Z0s due to new s-channel physics processes was performed. It is shown that 3 evidence of excited quark production with a resonant mass of Mq = 1TeV could be observed with 600 pb􀀀1 of integrated luminosity at ps = 7TeV, making this a viable search channel for the first phase of LHC operation. Alongside the machine commissioning, the LHC computing grid has been preparing for data taking operations. Investigations into the tape migration performance at the UK Tier-1 computing centre were undertaken. Through hardware configuration and algorithmic optimisations, the effective tape write rate per drive is shown to improve from 16 to 90MBs􀀀1.