197 research outputs found
Performance of the LHCb vertex locator
The Vertex Locator (VELO) is a silicon microstrip detector that surrounds the proton-proton interaction region in the LHCb experiment. The performance of the detector during the first years of its physics operation is reviewed. The system is operated in vacuum, uses a bi-phase CO2 cooling system, and the sensors are moved to 7 mm from the LHC beam for physics data taking. The performance and stability of these characteristic features of the detector are described, and details of the material budget are given. The calibration of the timing and the data processing algorithms that are implemented in FPGAs are described. The system performance is fully characterised. The sensors have a signal to noise ratio of approximately 20 and a best hit resolution of 4 μm is achieved at the optimal track angle. The typical detector occupancy for minimum bias events in standard operating conditions in 2011 is around 0.5%, and the detector has less than 1% of faulty strips. The proximity of the detector to the beam means that the inner regions of the n+-on-n sensors have undergone space-charge sign inversion due to radiation damage. The VELO performance parameters that drive the experiment's physics sensitivity are also given. The track finding efficiency of the VELO is typically above 98% and the modules have been aligned to a precision of 1 μm for translations in the plane transverse to the beam. A primary vertex resolution of 13 μm in the transverse plane and 71 μm along the beam axis is achieved for vertices with 25 tracks. An impact parameter resolution of less than 35 μm is achieved for particles with transverse momentum greater than 1 GeV/c
Precision luminosity measurements at LHCb
Measuring cross-sections at the LHC requires the luminosity to be determined accurately at each centre-of-mass energy √s. In this paper results are reported from the luminosity calibrations carried out at the LHC interaction point 8 with the LHCb detector for √s = 2.76, 7 and 8 TeV (proton-proton collisions) and for √sNN = 5 TeV (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 √s = 8 TeV 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
Measurement of the ratio of branching fractions BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma)
The ratio of branching fractions of the radiative B decays B0 -> K*0 gamma
and Bs0 -> phi gamma has been measured using 0.37 fb-1 of pp collisions at a
centre of mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. The
value obtained is BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma)/BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) = 1.12 +/- 0.08
^{+0.06}_{-0.04} ^{+0.09}_{-0.08}, where the first uncertainty is statistical,
the second systematic and the third is associated to the ratio of fragmentation
fractions fs/fd. Using the world average for BR(B0 -> K*0 gamma) = (4.33 +/-
0.15) x 10^{-5}, the branching fraction BR(Bs0 -> phi gamma) is measured to be
(3.9 +/- 0.5) x 10^{-5}, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figure, 2 table
Search for CP violation in decays
A model-independent search for direct CP violation in the Cabibbo suppressed
decay in a sample of approximately 370,000 decays is
carried out. The data were collected by the LHCb experiment in 2010 and
correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35 pb. The normalized Dalitz
plot distributions for and are compared using four different
binning schemes that are sensitive to different manifestations of CP violation.
No evidence for CP asymmetry is found.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment
The calibration and performance of the oppositeside
flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements
of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment
are described. The algorithms have been developed using
simulated events and optimized and calibrated with
B
+ →J/ψK
+, B0 →J/ψK
∗0 and B0 →D
∗−
μ
+
νμ decay
modes with 0.37 fb−1 of data collected in pp collisions
at
√
s = 7 TeV during the 2011 physics run. The oppositeside
tagging power is determined in the B
+ → J/ψK
+
channel to be (2.10 ± 0.08 ± 0.24) %, where the first uncertainty
is statistical and the second is systematic
Measurement of charged particle multiplicities in collisions at TeV in the forward region
The charged particle production in proton-proton collisions is studied with
the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of TeV in different
intervals of pseudorapidity . The charged particles are reconstructed
close to the interaction region in the vertex detector, which provides high
reconstruction efficiency in the ranges and
. The data were taken with a minimum bias trigger, only requiring
one or more reconstructed tracks in the vertex detector. By selecting an event
sample with at least one track with a transverse momentum greater than 1 GeV/c
a hard QCD subsample is investigated. Several event generators are compared
with the data; none are able to describe fully the multiplicity distributions
or the charged particle density distribution as a function of . In
general, the models underestimate the charged particle production
Measurement of the CP-violating phase phi_s in the decay Bs->J/psi phi
We present a measurement of the time-dependent CP-violating asymmetry in B_s
-> J/psi phi decays, using data collected with the LHCb detector at the LHC.
The decay time distribution of B_s -> J/psi phi is characterized by the decay
widths Gamma_H and Gamma_L of the heavy and light mass eigenstates of the
B_s-B_s-bar system and by a CP-violating phase phi_s. In a sample of about 8500
B_s -> J/psi phi events isolated from 0.37 fb^-1 of pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7
TeV we measure phi_s = 0.15 +/- 0.18 (stat) +/- 0.06 (syst) rad. We also find
an average B_s decay width Gamma_s == (Gamma_L + Gamma_H)/2 = 0.657 +/- 0.009
(stat) +/- 0.008 (syst) ps^-1 and a decay width difference Delta Gamma_s ==
Gamma_L - Gamma_H} = 0.123 +/- 0.029 (stat) +/- 0.011 (syst) ps^-1. Our
measurement is insensitive to the transformation (phi_s,DeltaGamma_s --> pi -
phi_s, - Delta Gamma_s.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figure
First evidence of direct CP violation in charmless two-body decays of Bs mesons
Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.35
collected by LHCb in 2011, we report the first evidence of
CP violation in the decays of mesons to pairs,
, with a significance of 3.3. Furthermore, we
report the first observation of CP violation in decays at a hadron
collider, , with a significance exceeding 6.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables; v2 with minor changes after journal
revie
Measurements of the branching fractions of the decays B°s → D∓s K± and B°s → D¯sπ+
The decay mode B°s → D∓s K± allows for one of the theoretically cleanest measurements of the CKM angle γ through the study of time-dependent CP violation. This paper reports a measurement of its branching fraction relative to the Cabibbo-favoured mode B°s → D¯sπ+ based on a data sample corresponding to 0.37 fb¯¹ of proton-proton collisions at √s = 7TeV collected in 2011 with the LHCb detector. In addition, the ratio of B meson production fractions fs/fd, determined from semileptonic decays, together with the known branching fraction of the control channel B°s → D¯sπ+ is used to perform an absolute measurement of the branching fractions: B(B°s → D¯sπ+) = (2.95 ± 0.05 ± 0.17 -0.22 +0.18) × 10¯³ ; B(B°s → D∓s K±) = (1.90 ± 0.12 ± 0.13 -0.14 +0.12) × 10¯4 ; where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second the experimental systematic uncertainty, and the third the uncertainty due to f s/f
Observation of excited Lambda_b0 baryons
Using pp collision data corresponding to 1.0 fb-1 integrated luminosity
collected by the LHCb detector, two narrow states are observed in the
Lambda_b0pi+pi- spectrum with masses 5911.97 +- 0.12(stat) +- 0.02(syst) +-
0.66(Lambda_b0 mass) MeV/c^2 and 5919.77 +- 0.08(stat) +- 0.02(syst) +-
0.66(Lambda_b0 mass) MeV/c^2. The significances of the observations are 5.2 and
10.2 standard deviations, respectively. These states are interpreted as the
orbitally-excited Lambda_b0 baryons, Lambda_b*0(5912) and Lambda_b*0(5920).Comment: Replaced by version published in Phys. Rev. Lett, modified fit with
better mass resolution treatmen
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