Abstract: The results of a search for top squark (stop) pair production in final states with one isolated lepton, jets, and missing transverse momentum are reported. The analysis is performed with proton-proton collision data at root s = 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in 2012 corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20 fb(-1). The lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is taken to be the lightest neutralino which only interacts weakly and is assumed to be stable. The stop decay modes considered are those to a top quark and the LSP as well as to a bottom quark and the lightest chargino, where the chargino decays to the LSP by emitting a W boson. A wide range of scenarios with different mass splittings between the stop, the lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino are considered, including cases where the W bosons or the top quarks are off-shell. Decay modes involving the heavier charginos and neutralinos are addressed using a set of phenomenological models of supersymmetry. No significant excess over the Standard Model prediction is observed. A stop with a mass between 210 and 640 GeV decaying directly to a top quark and a massless LSP is excluded at 95% confidence level, and in models where the mass of the lightest chargino is twice that of the LSP, stops are excluded at 95% confidence level up to a mass of 500 GeV for an LSP mass in the range of 100 to 150 GeV. Stringent exclusion limits are also derived for all other stop decay modes considered, and model-independent upper limits are set on the visible cross-section for processes beyond the Standard Model.

Abstract: This article presents differential measurements of the asymmetry between Lambda(0)(b) and (Lambda) over bar (0)(b) baryon production rates in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of root s = 7 and 8 TeV collected with the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb(-1). The Lambda(0)(b) baryons are reconstructed through the inclusive semileptonic decay Lambda(0)(b) -> Lambda(+)(c) mu(-)(nu) over bar X-mu. The production asymmetry is measured both in intervals of rapidity in the range 2:15 < y < 4:10 and transverse momentum in 2 < p T < 27 GeV/c. The results are found to be incompatible with symmetric production with a significance of 5.8 standard deviations for both root s = 7 and 8 TeV data, assuming no CP violation in the decay. There is evidence for a trend as a function of rapidity with a significance of 4 standard deviations. Comparisons to predictions from hadronisation models in Pythia and heavy-quark recombination are provided. This result constitutes the first observation of a particle-antiparticle asymmetry in b-hadron production at LHC energies.

Abstract: A measurement of the cross-section for Z-boson production in the forward region of pp collisions at 8 TeV centre-of-mass energy is presented. The measurement is based on a sample of Z -> e(+)e(-) decays reconstructed using the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb(-1). The acceptance is defined by the requirements 2.0 < eta < 4.5 and p(T) > 20 GeV for the pseudorapidities and transverse momenta of the leptons. Their invariant mass is required to lie in the range 60-120 GeV. The cross-section is determined to be sigma(pp -> Z -> e(+)e(-)) = 93.81 +/- 0.41(stat) +/- 1.48(syst) +/- 1.14(lumi) pb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second reflects all systematic effects apart from that arising from the luminosity, which is given as the third uncertainty. Differential cross-sections are presented as functions of the Z-boson rapidity and of the angular variable phi*, which is related to the Z-boson transverse momentum.