59380575
Selection of LHCb Physics Results
LHCb is a dedicated flavour physics experiment at the LHC searching for physics beyond the Standard Model through precision measurements of CP-violating observables and the study of very rare decays of beauty- and charm-flavoured hadrons. In this article a selection of recent LHCb results is presented. Unless otherwise stated, the results are based on an integrated luminosity of 1 fb −1 accumulated during the year 2011 at √ s = 7 TeV.
122081812
Study of $\eta-\eta^{\prime}$ mixing from measurement of $B^0_{(s)} \rightarrow J/\psi \eta^{(\prime)}$ decay rates
A study of $B^0$~and $B^0_s$ meson decays into $J/\psi\eta$~and $J/\psi\eta^{\prime}$ final states is performed using a data set of proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment and corresponding to 3.0fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. The decay $B^0 \rightarrow J/\psi \eta^{\prime}$ is observed for thefirst time. The following ratios of branching fractions are measured: $$ \frac{\mathcal{B}(B^0 \rightarrow J/\psi \eta^{\prime})}{\mathcal{B}(B^0_s \rightarrow J/\psi \eta^{\prime})} = (2.28\pm0.65\,(stat)\,\pm0.10\,(syst)\,\pm0.13\,(f_{s}/f_{d}))\times10^{-2},$$ $$ \frac{\mathcal{B}(B^0 \rightarrow J/\psi \eta)}{\mathcal{B}(B^0_s \rightarrow J/\psi \eta)} = (1.85\pm0.61\,(stat)\,\pm0.09\,(syst)\,\pm0.11\,(f_{s}/f_{d}))\times10^{-2},$$ where the third uncertainty is related to the present knowledge of $f_{s}/f_{d}$, the ratio between the probabilities for a $b$ quark to form a $B^0_s$ or $B^0$ meson. The branching fraction ratios are used to determine the parameters of $\eta-\eta^{\prime}$ meson mixing. In addition, the first evidence for the decay $B^0_s \rightarrow \psi(2S) \eta^{\prime}$ is reported, and the relative branching fraction is measured, 
$$\frac{\mathcal{B}(B^0_s \rightarrow \psi(2S) \eta^{\prime})}{\mathcal{B}(B^0_s \rightarrow J/\psi \eta^{\prime})} = (38.7\pm9.0\,(stat)\,\pm1.3\,(syst)\,\pm0.9(\mathcal{B}))\times10^{-2},$$ 
where the third uncertainty is due to the limited knowledge of the branching fractions of $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$~mesons.
119113679
Search for CP violation in the decay $D^+ \to \pi^-\pi^+\pi^+$
A search for CP violation in the phase space of the decay $D^+\to\pi^-\pi^+\pi^+$ is reported using $pp$ collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb$^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The Dalitz plot distributions for $3.1\times 10^6$ $D^+$ and $D^-$ candidates are compared with binned and unbinned model-independent techniques. No evidence for CP violation is found.
122048635
Time resolution limits of the MWPCs for the LHCb muon system
Abstract Detailed simulations of the timing properties of the Multi-Wire-Proportional-Chambers of the LHCb muon system are compared with actual measurements. The simulated time resolution is in good agreement with the measurement which allows to study the resolution limiting parameters like diffusion, charge deposit fluctuations, cluster position fluctuations, electronics noise, track position and wire spacing to show how they affect the performance of the system. Methods to improve the time resolution of the muon chambers are discussed.
18491403
Study of beauty hadron decays into pairs of charm hadrons
First observations of the decays Λb 0 → Λc +D(s) - are reported using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb-1 collected at 7 and 8 TeV center-of-mass energies in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector. In addition, the most precise measurement of the branching fraction B(Bs 0→D+Ds -) is made and a search is performed for the decays B(s) 0→Λc +Λc -. The results obtained are B(Λb 0→Λc +D-)/ B(Λb 0→Λc +D s -)=0.042±0.003(stat)±0.003(syst), [B(Λb 0→Λc +D s -)/B(B0→D+D s -)]/[B(Λb 0→Λ c +π-)/B(B0→D +π-)]=0.96±0.02(stat)±0.06(syst),B(B s 0→D+Ds -)/ B(B0→D+Ds -)=0. 038±0.004(stat)±0.003(syst),B(B0→Λ c +Λc -)/B(B 0→D+Ds -)<0.0022[95%C.L.], B(Bs 0→Λc +Λ c -)/B(Bs 0→D+D s -)<0.30[95%C.L.]. Measurement of the mass of the Λb 0 baryon relative to the B0 meson gives M(Λb 0)-M(B0)=339. 72±0.24(stat)±0.18(syst)MeV/c2. This result provides the most precise measurement of the mass of the Λb 0 baryon to date.
119287240
Searches for Majorana neutrinos in $B^-$ decays
Searches for heavy Majorana neutrinos in B- decays in final states containing hadrons plus a \mu- \mu- pair have been performed using 0.41/fb of data collected with the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The D+ \mu- \mu- and D*+ \mu- \mu- final states can arise from the presence of virtual Majorana neutrinos of any mass. Other final states containing \pi+, Ds+, or D0\pi+ can be mediated by an on-shell Majorana neutrino. No signals are found and upper limits are set on Majorana neutrino production as a function of mass, and also on the B- decay branching fractions.
119080950
Cosmological Results from High-z Supernovae* **
The High-z Supernova Search Team has discovered and observed eight new supernovae in the redshift interval z = 0.3-1.2. These independent observations, analyzed by similar but distinct methods, confirm the results of Riess and Perlmutter and coworkers that supernova luminosity distances imply an accelerating universe. More importantly, they extend the redshift range of consistently observed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) to z ≈ 1, where the signature of cosmological effects has the opposite sign of some plausible systematic effects. Consequently, these measurements not only provide another quantitative confirmation of the importance of dark energy, but also constitute a powerful qualitative test for the cosmological origin of cosmic acceleration. We find a rate for SN Ia of (1.4 ± 0.5) × 10-4 h3 Mpc-3 yr-1 at a mean redshift of 0.5. We present distances and host extinctions for 230 SN Ia. These place the following constraints on cosmological quantities: if the equation of state parameter of the dark energy is w = -1, then H0t0 = 0.96 ± 0.04, and ΩΛ - 1.4ΩM = 0.35 ± 0.14. Including the constraint of a flat universe, we find ΩM = 0.28 ± 0.05, independent of any large-scale structure measurements. Adopting a prior based on the Two Degree Field (2dF) Redshift Survey constraint on ΩM and assuming a flat universe, we find that the equation of state parameter of the dark energy lies in the range -1.48 -1, we obtain w < -0.73 at 95% confidence. These constraints are similar in precision and in value to recent results reported using the WMAP satellite, also in combination with the 2dF Redshift Survey.
118629327
Supernova 2012ec: Identification of the progenitor and early monitoring with PESSTO
Research by JRM is supported through a Royal Society Research 
Fellowship. SJS is supported by FP7/2007-2013/ERC Grant agreement no. [291222]. GP acknowledges support from the Millennium 
Center for Supernova Science through grant P10-064-F funded by 
‘Programa Bicentenario de Ciencia y Tecnolog´ia de CONICYT’, 
‘Programa Iniciativa Cient´ifica Milenio deMIDEPLAN’ and 
proyecto interno UNAB DI-303-13/R. Research by AGY and his 
group is supported by funding from the FP7/ERC, Minerva and 
GIF grants.
54528615
The Broad-lined Type Ic SN 2003jd
The results of a world-wide coordinated observational campaign on the broad-lined Type Ic SN 2003jd are presented. In total, 74 photometric data points and 26 spectra were collected using 11 different telescopes. SN 2003jd is one of the most luminous SN Ic ever observed. A comparison with other Type Ic supernovae (SNe Ic) confirms that SN 2003jd represents an intermediate case between broad-line events (2002ap, 2006aj), and highly energetic SNe (1997ef, 1998bw, 2003dh, 2003lw), with an ejected mass of M_{ej} = 3.0 +/- 1 Mo and a kinetic energy of E_{k}(tot) = 7_{-2}^{+3} 10^{51} erg. SN 2003jd is similar to SN 1998bw in terms of overall luminosity, but it is closer to SNe 2006aj and 2002ap in terms of light-curve shape and spectral evolution. The comparison with other SNe Ic, suggests that the V-band light curves of SNe Ic can be partially homogenized by introducing a time stretch factor. Finally, due to the similarity of SN 2003jd to the SN 2006aj/XRF 060218 event, we discuss the possible connection of SN 2003jd with a GRB.
115139623
On the significance of the excess number of strong Mg II absorbers observed toward gamma-ray bursts
The number of strong (equivalent width >1 A) Mg II absorbers observed toward gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) has been found to be statistically larger than the number of strong absorbers toward quasi-stellar objects (QSOs). We formalize this "Mg II problem" and present a detailed explanation of the statistical tools required to assess the significance of the discrepancy. We find that the problem exists at the 4σ level for GRBs with high-resolution spectra. It has been suggested that the discrepancy can be resolved by the combination of a dust obscuration bias toward QSOs, and a strong gravitational lensing bias toward GRBs. We investigate one of the two most probable lensed GRBs that we presented in our previous work (GRB020405) and find that it is not strongly gravitationally lensed, constraining the percentage of lensed GRBs to be <35% (2σ). Dust obscuration of QSOs has been estimated to be a significant effect with dusty Mg II systems removing ~20% of absorbed objects from flux-limited QSO samples. We find that if ~30% of the strong Mg II systems toward QSOs are missing from the observed samples, then GRBs and QSOs would have comparable numbers of absorbers per unit redshift. Thus, strong gravitational lensing bias is likely to make only a modest contribution to solving the Mg II problem. However, if the dust obscuration bias has been slightly underestimated, the Mg II problem would no longer persist.
122038628
Helium molecular gas mixtures for high resolution drift chambers
Abstract A comprehensive experimental study of helium based counting gases is presented. The properties of electron transport and gas amplification in mixtures of helium with a variety of molecular additives have been studied and compared with a standard argon based gas. Mixtures of helium with isobutane of CF 4 combine a low multiple scattering with excellent gas amplification properties and transport parameters.