Abstract: Quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, describes interactions of coloured quarks and gluons and the formation of hadronic matter. Conventional hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and quark-antiquark pairs, respectively. Particles with an alternative quark content are known as exotic states. Here a study is reported of an exotic narrow state in the (DD0)-D-0 pi(+) mass spectrum just below the D*+D-0 mass threshold produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The state is consistent with the ground isoscalar T-cc(+), tetraquark with a quark content of cc (u) over bar(d) over bar and spin-parity quantum numbers J(P) =1(+). Study of the DD mass spectra disfavours interpretation of the resonance as the isovector state. The decay structure via intermediate off-shell D*(+) mesons is consistent with the observed D-0 pi(+) mass distribution. To analyse the mass of the resonance and its coupling to the DID system, a dedicated model is developed under the assumption of an isoscalar axial-vector T-cc(+), state decaying to the D*D channel. Using this model, resonance parameters including the pole position, scattering length, effective range and compositeness are determined to reveal important information about the nature of the T-cc(+), state. In addition, an unexpected dependence of the production rate on track multiplicity is observed.

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: A search for decays of B-c(+) mesons to two charm mesons is performed for the first time using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. The decays considered are B-c(+)-> D-(s)(()*())(+) (D) over bar (()*()0) and Bc(+)-> D-(s)(()*D-)+(()*())(0), which are normalised to high-yield B+-> D-(s)(+)(D) over bar (0)decays. No evidence for a signal is found and limits are set on twelve B-c(+) decay modes.