Higgs: The next generation Evidence for the dimuon decay of the Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector

The Standard Model of particle physics is the most comprehensive and well tested theory of the fundamental forces and particles that govern nature, that exists to date. The cornerstone of this theory is the Higgs mechanism, which provides an explanation for the masses of the fermions and vector bosons in the Standard Model by having them couple to the Higgs field.
Accurate measurements of these couplings form a key identifier to establish if what has been measured is indeed what has been proposed, or if an extension to this mechanism is required to match what happens in nature. As of today, the couplings of the Higgs boson to the vector bosons and the third generation of fermions have been measured to a high degree of accuracy. The best candidate to further expand this knowledge base into the second generation of fermions is the coupling of the Higgs boson with muons.
This thesis covers a measurement performed with the ATLAS detector using 13.6 TeV proton-proton collision data recorded during Run 3 of the Large Hadron Collider. Beyond the increase in available data statistics, this measurement improves upon the previous result through various novel experimental techniques including a reconstruction of the dimuon decay vertex. A statistical combination is made with the results from the Run 2 data to obtain evidence for this decay with the ATLAS detector, resulting in the most accurate measurement of the coupling of the Higgs boson with muons to date.