Interim Report of the Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas

The ICES Working Group on Ecosystem Assessment of Western European Shelf Seas (WGEAWESS) meeting was held in Lisbon (Portugal), on 24–28 April 2017. The meeting was attended by 8 participants from 4 countries and chaired by Steven Beggs, Northern Ireland (UK). This was the first year of the new 3-year Terms of Reference (ToR) for WGEAWESS. The main activities for the group at the 2017 meeting were to discuss progress and further development of work towards the ToRs a) Continue metadata compilation for all ecosystem components available for IEA development, b) Continue evaluation of data and trends for a regional Integrated Ecosystem Assessment (IEA). Identify ecosystem trends relevant to stock assessment and management. As an outcome of specific objectives to integrate the activities of WGEAWESS with sister IEA groups, the meeting was held back to back with both the ICES/HELCOM Working Group on Integrated Assessments of the Baltic Sea (WGIAB) and the Working Group on Comparative Analyses between European Atlantic and Mediterranean marine ecosystems to move towards an Ecosystem-based Approach to Fisheries (WGCOMEDA). This back to back meeting had many advantages and provided much opportunity for group integration and future collaboration

First observation of the decay Bˉs0→D0K∗0\bar{B}^0_s \to D^0 K^{*0} and a measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(Bˉs0→D0K∗0)B(Bˉ0→D0ρ0)\frac{{\cal B}(\bar{B}^0_s \to D^0 K^{*0})}{{\cal B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^0 \rho^0)}

The first observation of the decay $\bar{B}^0_s \to D^0 K^{*0}$ using $pp$ data collected by the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb$^{-1}$, is reported. A signal of $34.4 \pm 6.8$ events is obtained and the absence of signal is rejected with a statistical significance of more than nine standard deviations. The $\bar{B}^0_s \to D^0 K^{*0}$ branching fraction is measured relative to that of $\bar{B}^0 \to D^0 \rho^0$: $\frac{{\cal B}(\bar{B}^0_s \to D^0 K^{*0})}{{\cal B}(\bar{B}^0 \to D^0 \rho^0)} = 1.48 \pm 0.34 \pm 0.15 \pm 0.12$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third is due to the uncertainty on the ratio of the $B^0$ and $B^0_s$ hadronisation fractions.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett. B; ISSN 0370-269

Search for jet extinction in the inclusive jet-pT spectrum from proton-proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published articles title, journal citation, and DOI.The first search at the LHC for the extinction of QCD jet production is presented, using data collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 10.7  fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The extinction model studied in this analysis is motivated by the search for signatures of strong gravity at the TeV scale (terascale gravity) and assumes the existence of string couplings in the strong-coupling limit. In this limit, the string model predicts the suppression of all high-transverse-momentum standard model processes, including jet production, beyond a certain energy scale. To test this prediction, the measured transverse-momentum spectrum is compared to the theoretical prediction of the standard model. No significant deficit of events is found at high transverse momentum. A 95% confidence level lower limit of 3.3 TeV is set on the extinction mass scale

Searches for electroweak neutralino and chargino production in channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons in pp collisions at 8 TeV

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) are presented based on the electroweak pair production of neutralinos and charginos, leading to decay channels with Higgs, Z, and W bosons and undetected lightest SUSY particles (LSPs). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 19.5 fb(-1) of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected in 2012 with the CMS detector at the LHC. The main emphasis is neutralino pair production in which each neutralino decays either to a Higgs boson (h) and an LSP or to a Z boson and an LSP, leading to hh, hZ, and ZZ states with missing transverse energy (E-T(miss)). A second aspect is chargino-neutralino pair production, leading to hW states with E-T(miss). The decays of a Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair, to a photon pair, and to final states with leptons are considered in conjunction with hadronic and leptonic decay modes of the Z and W bosons. No evidence is found for supersymmetric particles, and 95% confidence level upper limits are evaluated for the respective pair production cross sections and for neutralino and chargino mass values

Observation of J/ψ-pair production in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

The production of J/ψ pairs in proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV has been observed using an integrated luminosity of 37.5 pb−1 collected with the LHCb detector. The production cross-section for pairs with both J/ψ in the rapidity range 2 < yJ/ψ < 4.5 and transverse momentum pJ/ψ T <10 GeV/c is σJ/ψJ/ψ =5.1±1.0±1.1 nb, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic

Measurement of the inclusive φ cross-section in pp collisions at √s=7 TeV

The cross-section for inclusive φ meson production in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7 TeV has been measured with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The differential cross-section is measured as a function of the φ transverse momentum pT and rapidity y in the region 0.6< pT <5.0 GeV/c and 2.44< y <4.06. The cross-section for inclusive φ production in this kinematic range is σ(pp→φX)=1758±19(stat) +43−14(syst)±182(scale) μb, where the first systematic uncertainty depends on the pT and y region and the second is related to the overall scale. Predictions based on the Pythia 6.4 generator underestimate the cross-section