Abstract: A low-noise head amplifier has been developed for the extra low energy antiproton ring beam trajectory, orbit, and intensity measurement system at CERN. This system is based on 24 double-electrode electrostatic beam position monitors installed around the ring. A head amplifier is placed close to each beam position monitor to amplify the electrode signals and generate a difference and a sum signal. These signals are sent to the digital acquisition system, about 50 m away from the ring, where they are digitized and further processed. The beam position can be measured by dividing the difference signal by the sum signal while the sum signal gives information relative to the beam intensity. The head amplifier consists of two discrete charge preamplifiers with junction field effect transistor (JFET) inputs, a sum and a difference stage, and two cable drivers. Special attention has been paid to the amplifier printed circuit board design to minimize the parasitic capacitances and inductances at the charge amplifier stages to meet the gain and noise requirements. The measurements carried out on the head amplifier showed a gain of 40.5 and 46.5 dB for the sum and difference outputs with a bandwidth from 200 Hz to 75 MHz and an input voltage noise density lower than 400 pV/v Hz. Twenty head amplifiers have been already installed in the ring and they have been used to detect the first beam signals during the first commissioning stage in November 2016.

Abstract: From the perspective that Lambda(C)(2595) and Lambda(C)(2625) are dynamically generated resonances from the DN, D*N interaction and coupled channels, we have evaluated the rates for Lambda(b) -> pi(-)Lambda(C)(2595) and Lambda(b) -> pi(-)Lambda(C)(2625) up to a global unknown factor that allows us to calculate the ratio of rates and compare with experiment, where good agreement is found. Similarly, we can also make predictions for the ratio of rates of the, yet unknown, decays of Lambda(b) -> D-s(-)Lambda(C)(2595) and Lambda(b) -> D-s(-)Lambda(c)(2625) and make estimates for their individual branching fractions.

Abstract: A test of lepton universality, performed by measuring the ratio of the branching fractions of the B-0 -> K*(0)mu(+) mu(-) and B-0 -> K*e(+)e(-) decays, R-K*0, is presented. The K*(0) meson is reconstructed in the final state K+pi(-), which is required to have an invariant mass within 100 MeV/c(2) of the known K*(892)(0) mass. The analysis is performed using proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 3 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The ratio is measured in two regions of the dilepton invariant mass squared, q(2), to be R-K*0 – {0.66(-0.007)(+0.11)(stat) +/- 0.03(syst) for 0.045 < q(2) < GeV2/c(4), 0.69(-0.07)(+0.11)(stat) +/- 0.05(syst) for 1.1 < q(2) < 6.0 GeV2/c(4). The corresponding 95.4% confidence level intervals are [0.52, 0.89] and [0.53, 0.94]. The results, which represent the most precise measurements of R-K*0 to date, are compatible with the Standard Model expectations at the level of 2.1-2.3 and 2.4-2.5 standard deviations in the two q(2) regions, respectively.