Elliptic flow of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report the first measurement of charged particle elliptic flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurement is performed in the central pseudorapidity region (|$\eta$|<0.8) and transverse momentum range 0.2< $p_{\rm T}$< 5.0 GeV/$c$. The elliptic flow signal v$_2$, measured using the 4-particle correlation method, averaged over transverse momentum and pseudorapidity is 0.087 $\pm$ 0.002 (stat) $\pm$ 0.004 (syst) in the 40-50% centrality class. The differential elliptic flow v$_2(p_{\rm T})$ reaches a maximum of 0.2 near $p_{\rm T}$ = 3 GeV/$c$. Compared to RHIC Au-Au collisions at 200 GeV, the elliptic flow increases by about 30%. Some hydrodynamic model predictions which include viscous corrections are in agreement with the observed increase.Comment: 10 pages, 4 captioned figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/389

Two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The first measurement of two-pion Bose-Einstein correlations in central Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. We observe a growing trend with energy now not only for the longitudinal and the outward but also for the sideward pion source radius. The pion homogeneity volume and the decoupling time are significantly larger than those measured at RHIC.Comment: 17 pages, 5 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/388

Higher harmonic anisotropic flow measurements of charged particles in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV

We report on the first measurement of the triangular $v_3$, quadrangular $v_4$, and pentagonal $v_5$ charged particle flow in Pb-Pb collisions at 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. We show that the triangular flow can be described in terms of the initial spatial anisotropy and its fluctuations, which provides strong constraints on its origin. In the most central events, where the elliptic flow $v_2$ and $v_3$ have similar magnitude, a double peaked structure in the two-particle azimuthal correlations is observed, which is often interpreted as a Mach cone response to fast partons. We show that this structure can be naturally explained from the measured anisotropic flow Fourier coefficients.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/387

Identification of beauty and charm quark jets at LHCb

Identification of jets originating from beauty and charm quarks is important for measuring Standard Model processes and for searching for new physics. The performance of algorithms developed to select b- and c-quark jets is measured using data recorded by LHCb from proton-proton collisions at root s = 7TeV in 2011 and at root s = 8TeV in 2012. The efficiency for identifying a b (c) jet is about 65%(25%) with a probability for misidentifying a light-parton jet of 0.3% for jets with transverse momentum pT > 20GeV and pseudorapidity 2 : 2 < eta < 4.2. The dependence of the performance on the pT and eta of the jet is also measured

B flavour tagging using charm decays at the LHCb experiment

An algorithm is described for tagging the flavour content at production of neutral B mesons in the LHCb experiment. The algorithm exploits the correlation of the flavour of a B meson with the charge of a reconstructed secondary charm hadron from the decay of the other b hadron produced in the proton-proton collision. Charm hadron candidates are identified in a number of fully or partially reconstructed Cabibbo-favoured decay modes. The algorithm is calibrated on the self-tagged decay modes B+ -> J/psi K+ and B-0 -> J/psi K*(0) using 3.0fb(-1) of data collected by the LHCb experiment at pp centre-of-mass energies of 7TeV and 8TeV. Its tagging power on these samples of B -> J/psi X decays is (0.30 +/- 0.01 +/- 0.01) %

Observation of the B0→ρ0ρ0 decay from an amplitude analysis of B0→(π+π−)(π+π−) decays

Proton-proton collision data recorded in 2011 and 2012 by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb(-1), are analysed to search for the charmless B-0 -> rho(0)rho(0) decay. More than 600 B-0 -> (pi(+)pi(-))(pi(+)pi(-)) signal decays are selected and used to perform an amplitude, analysis, under the assumption of no CP violation in the decay, from which the B-0 -> rho(0)rho(0) decay is observed for the first time with 7.1 standard deviations significance. The fraction of B-0 -> rho(0)rho(0) decays yielding a longitudinally polarised final state is measured to be f(L) = 0.745(-0.058)(+0.048)(stat) +/- 0.034(syst). The B-0 -> rho(0)rho(0) branching fraction, using the B-0 -> phi K*(892)(0) decay as reference, is also reported as B(B-0 -> rho(0)rho(0)) = (0.94 +/- 0.17(stat) +/- 0.09(syst) +/- 0.06(BF)) x 10(-6). (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the LHCb Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licens

Precision luminosity measurements at LHCb

Measuring cross-sections at the LHC requires the luminosity to be determined accurately at each centre-of-mass energy root s. In this paper results are reported from the luminosity calibrations carried out at the LHC interaction point 8 with the LHCb detector for root s = 2.76, 7 and 8TeV (proton-proton collisions) and for root s(NN) = 5TeV (proton-lead collisions). Both the "van der Meer scan" and "beam-gas imaging" luminosity calibration methods were employed. It is observed that the beam density profile cannot always be described by a function that is factorizable in the two transverse coordinates. The introduction of a two-dimensional description of the beams improves significantly the consistency of the results. For proton-proton interactions at root s = 8TeV a relative precision of the luminosity calibration of 1.47% is obtained using van der Meer scans and 1.43% using beam-gas imaging, resulting in a combined precision of 1.12%. Applying the calibration to the full data set determines the luminosity with a precision of 1.16%. This represents the most precise luminosity measurement achieved so far at a bunched-beam hadron collider

Effective lifetime measurements in the B-s(0) -> K+K-, B-0 -> K+pi(-) and B-s(0) -> pi K-+(-) decays

Measurements of the effective lifetimes in the B-s(0) -> K+K-, B-0 -> K+pi(-) and B-s(0) -> pi K-+(-) decays are presented using 1.0 fb(-1)of pp collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV by the LHCb experiment. The analysis uses a data-driven approach to correct for the decay time acceptance. The measured effective lifetimes are tau(Bs0 -> K+K-) = 1.407 +/- 0.016 (stat) +/- 0.007 (syst) ps, tau(Bs0 -> K+pi-) = 1.524 +/- 0.011 (stat) +/- 0.004 (syst) ps, tau(Bs0 ->pi+K-) = 1.60 +/- 0.06 (stat) +/- 0.01 (syst) ps. This is the most precise determination to date of the effective lifetime in the B-s(0) -> K+K- decay and provides constraints on contributions from physics beyond the Standard Model to the B-s(0) mixing phase and the width difference Delta Gamma(s). (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V

Observation of the decay (B)over-bar(s)(0) -> psi(2S)K+pi(-)

The decay (B) over bar (0)(s) -> psi(2S)K+pi(-) is observed using a data set 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 branching fraction relative to the B-0 -> psi(2S)K+pi(-) decay mode is measured to be B((B) over bar (0)(s) -> psi(2S)K+pi(-))/B(B-0 -> psi(2S)K+pi(-)) = 5.38 +/- 0.36 (stat) +/- 0.22 (syst) +/- 0.31 (f(s)/f(d)) %, where f(s)/f(d) indicates the uncertainty due to the ratio of probabilities for a b quark to hadronise into a B-s(0) or B-0 meson. Using an amplitude analysis, the fraction of decays proceeding via an intermediate K*(892)(0) meson is measured to be 0.645 +/- 0.049 (stat) +/- 0.049 (syst) and its longitudinal polarisation fraction is 0.524 +/- 0.056 (stat) +/- 0.029 (syst). The relative branching fraction for this component is determined to be B((B) over bar (0)(s) -> psi(2S)K*(892)(0))/B(B-0 -> psi(2S)K*(892)(0)) = 5.58 +/- 0.57 (stat) +/- 0.40 (syst) +/- 0.32 (f(s)/f(d)) %. In addition, the mass splitting between the B-s(0) and B-0 mesons is measured as M(B-s(0)) - M(B-0) = 87.45 +/- 0.44 (stat) +/- 0.09 (syst) MeV/c(2). (C) 2015 CERN for the benefit of the LHCb Collaboration. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY licens