Abstract: The difference in the angular distributions between beauty quarks and antiquarks, referred to as the charge asymmetry, is measured for the first time in b (b) over bar pair production at a hadron collider. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1) collected at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector. The measurement is performed in three regions of the invariant mass of the b (b) over bar system. The results obtained are A(C)(b (b) over bar) (40 < M-b<(b)over bar> < 75 GeV/c(2)) = 0.4 +/- 0.4 +/- 0.3%, A(C)(b (b) over bar) (75 < M-b<(b)over bar> < 105 GeV/c(2)) = 2.0 +/- 0.9 +/- 0.6%, A(C)(b (b) over bar) (M-b (b) over bar > 10(5) GeV/c(2)) = 1.6 +/- 1.7 +/- 0.6%,where A(C)(b (b) over bar) is defined as the asymmetry in the difference in rapidity between jets formed from the beauty quark and antiquark, where in each case the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The beauty jets are required to satisfy 2 < eta < 4, E-T > 20 GeV, and have an opening angle in the transverse plane Delta phi > 2.6 rad. These measurements are consistent with the predictions of the standard model.

Abstract: We report on measurements of the mass and lifetime of the Xi(-)(b) baryon using about 1800 Xi(-)(b) decays reconstructed in a proton-proton collision data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected by the LHCb experiment. The decays are reconstructed in the Xi(-)(b) -> Xi(0)(c)pi(-), Xi(0)(c) -> pK(-)K(-)pi(+) channel and the mass and lifetime are measured using the Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda(+)(c)pi(-) mode as a reference. We measure M(Xi(-)(b)) – M(Lambda(0)(b)) = 178.36 +/- 0.46 +/- 0.16 MeV/c(2), (tau Xi(-)(b)/tau Lambda(0)(b)) = 1.089 +/- 0.026 +/- 0.011, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These results lead to a factor of 2 better precision on the Xi(-)(b) mass and lifetime compared to previous best measurements, and are consistent with theoretical expectations.

Abstract: We construct a comprehensive list of nonsupersymmetric standard model extensions with a low-scale left-right (LR)-symmetric intermediate stage that may be obtained as simple low-energy effective theories within a class of renormalizable SO(10) grand unified theories. Unlike the traditional “minimal” LR models many of our example settings support a perfect gauge coupling unification even if the LR scale is in the LHC domain at a price of only (a few copies of) one or two types of extra fields pulled down to the TeV-scale ballpark. We discuss the main aspects of a potentially realistic model building conforming the basic constraints from the quark and lepton sector flavor structure, proton decay limits, etc. We pay special attention to the theoretical uncertainties related to the limited information about the underlying unified framework in the bottom-up approach, in particular, to their role in the possible extraction of the LR-breaking scale. We observe a general tendency for the models without new colored states in the TeV domain to be on the verge of incompatibility with the proton stability constraints.

Abstract: It has been pointed out recently that current low-energy constraints still allow for sizable flavor-changing decay rates of the 125 GeV boson into leptons, h -> tau l (l = e, mu). In this work we discuss the role of hadronic tau-lepton decays in probing lepton flavor violating couplings in the Higgs sector. At low energy, the effective Higgs coupling to gluons induced by heavy quarks contributes to hadronic tau decays, establishing a direct connection with the relevant process at the LHC, pp(gg) -> h -> tau l. Semileptonic transitions like tau -> l pi pi are sensitive to flavor-changing scalar couplings, while decays such as tau -> l eta((l)) probe pseudoscalar couplings, thus providing a useful low-energy handle to disentangle possible Higgs flavor violating signals at the LHC. As part of our analysis, we provide an appropriate description of all the relevant hadronic matrix elements needed to describe Higgs mediated tau -> pi pi transitions, improving over previous treatments in the literature.

Abstract: The next-to-leading order QCD corrections to W-+/-gamma. production in association with two jets via vector boson fusion are calculated, including the leptonic decay of the W with full off-shell effects and spin correlations. The process lends itself to a test of quartic gauge couplings. The next-to-leading order corrections reduce the scale uncertainty significantly and show a nontrivial phase space dependence.