A general introduction is given in chapter 1. Chapter 2 outlines the main features of the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics and the theoretical motivations for going beyond it. We subsequently provide brief descriptions of a few popular models that aim to solve the issues that arise within the SM. In chapter 3 we describe the general Monte Carlo method and show how it can be used to construct a class of computational tools called Monte Carlo event generators. We describe the main generic features of event generators and how these are implemented in the HERWIG++ event generator. By applying resummation techniques, we provide, in chapter 4, analytical calculations of two types of hadron collider observables: global inclusive variables and the transverse energy of the QCD initial state radiation (ET), associated with the either Drell-Yan gauge boson production or Higgs boson production. In both cases we provide comparisons to results obtained from Monte Carlo event generators. In chapter 5 we examine two well-motivated models for new physics: one of new heavy charged vector bosons (W prime) and a model motivated by strong dynamics electroweak symmetry breaking that contains new resonances, leptoquarks, that couple primarily to quarks and leptons of the third generation. In the prior model, we improve the current treatment of the W' by considering interference effects with the SM W and construct an event generator accurate to next-to-leading order which we use to conduct a phenomenological analysis. For the leptoquark model, we provide an implementation in the HERWIG++ event generator and use it to form a strategy for mass reconstruction.

PhD Thesis submitted to the University of Cambridge in April 2011, examined in May 2011 and approved in July 2011. 225 pages. Abstract shortened in arXiv submission