Abstract: Long-lived particles (LLPs) show up in many extensions of the Standard Model, but they are challenging to search for with current detectors, due to their very displaced vertices. This study evaluated the ability of the trigger algorithms used in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment to detect long-lived particles and attempted to adapt them to enhance the sensitivity of this experiment to undiscovered long-lived particles. A model with a Higgs portal to a dark sector is tested, and the sensitivity reach is discussed. In the LHCb tracking system, the farthest tracking station from the collision point is the scintillating fiber tracker, the SciFi detector. One of the challenges in the track reconstruction is to deal with the large amount of and combinatorics of hits in the LHCb detector. A dedicated algorithm has been developed to cope with the large data output. When fully implemented, this algorithm would greatly increase the available statistics for any long-lived particle search in the forward region and would additionally improve the sensitivity of analyses dealing with Standard Model particles of large lifetime, such as KS0 or Lambda (0) hadrons.

Abstract: Many models of physics beyond the standard model predict the existence of new Abelian forces with new gauge bosons mediating interactions between “dark sectors” and the standard model. We report a search for a dark boson Z' coupling only to the second and third generations of leptons in the reaction e(+)e(-) -> mu(+)mu(-) Z', Z' -> mu(+)mu(-) using 514 fb(-1) of data collected by the BABAR experiment. No significant signal is observed for Z' masses in the range 0.212-10 GeV. Limits on the coupling parameter g' as low as 7 x 10(-4) are derived, leading to improvements in the bounds compared to those previously derived from neutrino experiments.

Abstract: Measurements are presented of electroweak boson production using data from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of root s = 8TeV. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb(-1) recorded with the LHCb detector. The bosons are identified in the W -> μnu and Z -> mu(+)mu(-) decay channels. The cross-sections are measured for muons in the pseudorapidity range 2.0 < eta < 4.5, with transverse momenta p(T) > 20 GeV/c and, in the case of the Z boson, a dimuon mass within 60 < M mu+mu- < 120 GeV/c(2). The results are sigma(W+) -> mu(+)nu(-) = 1093.6 +/- 2.1 +/- 7.2 +/- 10.9 +/- 12.7 pb, sigma(W-) -> mu(-)nu(-) = 818.4 +/- 1.9 +/- 5.0 +/- 7.0 +/- 9.5 pb, sigma(Z) -> mu(+)mu(-) = 95.0 +/- 0.3 +/- 0.7 +/- 1.1 +/- 1.1 pb, where the first uncertainties are statistical, the second are systematic, the third are due to the knowledge of the LHC beam energy and the fourth are due to the luminosity determination. The evolution of the W and Z boson cross-sections with centre-of-mass energy is studied using previously reported measurements with 1.0 fb(-1) of data at 7 TeV. Differential distributions are also presented. Results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.

Abstract: Measurements are presented of the CP violation observables S and C in the decays of B-0 and (B) over bar (0) mesons to the J/psi K-S(0) final state. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1) collected with the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, and contains a total of 41 560 selected B-0 and (B) over bar (0) decays. The analysis of the time evolution of these decays yields S = 0.731 +/- 0.035(stat) +/- 0.020(syst) and C = -0.038 +/- 0.032(stat) +/- 0.005(syst). In the standard model, S equals sin(2 beta) to a good level of precision. The values are consistent with the current world averages and with the standard model expectations.

Abstract: Measurements of charm mixing and CP violation parameters from the decay-time-dependent ratio of D-0 -> K+pi(-) to D-0 -> K-pi(+) decay rates and the charge-conjugate ratio are reported. The analysis uses (B) over bar -> D*(+) μX-, and charge-conjugate decays, where D *(+) -> D-0 pi(+), and D-0 -> K-+/-pi(-/+). The pp collision data are recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies root s = 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The data are analyzed under three hypotheses: (i) mixing assuming CP symmetry, (ii) mixing assuming no direct CP violation in the Cabibbo-favored or doubly Cabibbo-suppressed decay amplitudes, and (iii) mixing allowing either direct CP violation and/or CP violation in the superpositions of flavor eigenstates defining the mass eigenstates. The data are also combined with those from a previous LHCb study of D-0 -> K pi decays from a disjoint set of D*(+) candidates produced directly in pp collisions. In all cases, the data are consistent with the hypothesis of CP symmetry.