Abstract: Mesons comprising a beauty quark and strange quark can oscillate between particle (B-s(0)) and antiparticle (B-s(-0)) flavour eigenstates, with a frequency given by the mass difference between heavy and light mass eigenstates, Delta m(s). Here we present a measurement of Delta m(s) using B-s(0) -> D-s(-)pi(+) decays produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The oscillation frequency is found to be Delta m(s) = 17.7683 +/- 0.0051 +/- 0.0032 ps(-1), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. This measurement improves on the current Delta m(s) precision by a factor of two. We combine this result with previous LHCb measurements to determine Delta m(s) = 17.7656 +/- 0.0057 ps(-1), which is the legacy measurement of the original LHCb detector.

Abstract: The standard model of particle physics currently provides our best description of fundamental particles and their interactions. The theory predicts that the different charged leptons, the electron, muon and tau, have identical electroweak interaction strengths. Previous measurements have shown that a wide range of particle decays are consistent with this principle of lepton universality. This article presents evidence for the breaking of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays, with a significance of 3.1 standard deviations, based on proton–proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at CERN's Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are of processes in which a beauty meson transforms into a strange meson with the emission of either an electron and a positron, or a muon and an antimuon. If confirmed by future measurements, this violation of lepton universality would imply physics beyond the standard model, such as a new fundamental interaction between quarks and leptons.

Abstract: Coherent production of J/psi mesons is studied in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5 TeV, using a data sample collected by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 10 μb(-1). The J/psi mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon final state and are required to have transverse momentum below 1 GeV. The cross-section within the rapidity range of 2.0 < y < 4.5 is measured to be 4.45 +/- 0.24 +/- 0.18 +/- 0.58 mb, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the luminosity determination. The cross-section is also measured in J/psi rapidity intervals. The results are compared to predictions from phenomenological models.

Abstract: The cross-section for inelastic proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is measured with the LHCb detector. The fiducial cross-section for inelastic interactions producing at least one prompt long-lived charged particle with momentum p > 2 GeV/c in the pseudorapidity range 2 < eta < 5 is determined to be sigma(acc) = 62.2 +/- 0.2 +/- 2.5 mb. The first uncertainty is the intrinsic systematic uncertainty of the measurement, the second is due to the uncertainty on the integrated luminosity. The statistical uncertainty is negligible. Extrapolation to full phase space yields the total inelastic proton-proton cross-section sigma(inel) = 75.4 +/- 3.0 +/- 4.5 mb, where the first uncertainty is experimental and the second due to the extrapolation. An updated value of the inelastic cross-section at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is also reported.

Abstract: A search for the decay B-s(0) -> (K) over bar (*0) mu(+) mu(-) is presented using data sets corresponding to 1.0, 2.0 and 1.6 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected during pp collisions with the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13TeV, respectively. An excess is found over the background-only hypothesis with a significance of 3.4 standard deviations. The branching fraction of the B-s(0) -> (K) over bar (*0) mu(+) mu(-) decay is determined to be B(B-s(0) -> (K) over bar (*0) mu(+) mu(-)) = [2.9 +/- 1.0 (stat) +/- 0.2 (syst) +/- 0.3 (norm)] x 10(-8), where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The third uncertainty is due to limited knowledge of external parameters used to normalise the branching fraction measurement.