The importance of the H -> ZZ -> 4l golden channel was shown by its major role in the discovery, by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, of a Higgs-like boson with mass near 125 GeV. We analyze the discrimination power of the matrix element method both
for separating the signal from the irreducible ZZ background and for distinguishing various spin and parity hypotheses describing a signal in this channel. We show that the proper treatment of interference effects associated with permutations of identical leptons in the four electron and four muon final states plays an important role in achieving the best sensitivity in measuring the properties of the newly discovered boson. We provide a code, MEKD, that calculates kinematic discriminants based on the full leading order matrix elements and which will aid experimentalists and phenomenologists in their continuing studies of the H -> ZZ -> 4l channel.
A review of the discovery potential of LHC for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model (BSM) other than Supersymmetry in the early phase of running is presented. Topics covered include searches for extra dimensions in different scenarios (ADD, Randal
l-Sundrum, black holes ...), resonance hunting in di-lepton, di-photon and di-jet final states, searches for contact interactions, heavy stable charged particles, technicolor, etc. The strategies of the ATLAS and CMS experiments to understand the detectors and prepare them for search mode and the prospects for discoveries using early data are described.
