Gude, Alexander2015-11-062015-11-062015-05https://hdl.handle.net/11299/175445University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation. May 2015. Major: Physics. Advisor: Jeremiah Mans. 1 computer file (PDF); 187 pages.Measurements of the Z boson transverse momentum (Qt) spectrum serves as both a precision test of non-perturbative QCD and helps to reduce the uncertainty in the measurement of the W boson mass. However, Qt is limited at its lowest values by detector resolution, and so a new variable, phistar, which performs better in the low Qt region, is used instead. This thesis presents the first measurement of the normalized differential cross section of Z bosons decaying to electron pairs in terms of phistar at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data used in this measurement were collected by the CMS detector at the LHC in 2012 and totaled 19.7/fb of integrated luminosity. The results are compared to predictions from simulation, which are found to provide a poor description of the data.enCompact Muon SolenoidLarge Hadron ColliderPhistarTransverse MomentumZ BosonThesis or Dissertation