The first measurement of heavy-flavor production by the LHCb experiment in its fixed-target mode is presented. The production of J/ψ and D^{0} mesons is studied with beams of protons of different ...energies colliding with gaseous targets of helium and argon with nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of sqrts_{NN}=86.6 and 110.4 GeV, respectively. The J/ψ and D^{0} production cross sections in pHe collisions in the rapidity range 2, 4.6 are found to be σ_{J/ψ}=652±33(stat)±42(syst) nb/nucleon and σ_{D^{0}}=80.8±2.4(stat)±6.3(syst) μb/nucleon, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. No evidence for a substantial intrinsic charm content of the nucleon is observed in the large Bjorken-x region.
A search for heavy Majorana neutrinos produced in the B- → π+ μ- μ- decay mode is performed using 3 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity collected with the LHCb detector in pp collisions at ...center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC. Neutrinos with masses in the range 250 to 5000 MeV and lifetimes from zero to 1000 ps are probed. In the absence of a signal, upper limits are set on the branching fraction B(B- → π+ μ- μ-) as functions of neutrino mass and lifetime. These limits are on the order of 10(-9) for short neutrino lifetimes of 1 ps or less. Limits are also set on the coupling between the muon and a possible fourth-generation neutrino.
The data sample of Λ_{b}^{0}→J/ψpK^{-} decays acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 fb^{-1}, is inspected for the presence of ...J/ψp or J/ψK^{-} contributions with minimal assumptions about K^{-}p contributions. It is demonstrated at more than nine standard deviations that Λ_{b}^{0}→J/ψpK^{-} decays cannot be described with K^{-}p contributions alone, and that J/ψp contributions play a dominant role in this incompatibility. These model-independent results support the previously obtained model-dependent evidence for P_{c}^{+}→J/ψp charmonium-pentaquark states in the same data sample.
Here, the decay B0→ψ(2S)K+π- is analyzed using 3 fb-1 of pp collision data collected with the LHCb detector. A model-independent description of the ψ(2S)π mass spectrum is obtained, using as input ...the Kπ mass spectrum and angular distribution derived directly from data, without requiring a theoretical description of resonance shapes or their interference. The hypothesis that the ψ(2S)π mass spectrum can be described in terms of Kπ reflections alone is rejected with more than 8σ significance. This provides confirmation, in a model-independent way, of the need for an additional resonant component in the mass region of the Z(4430)- exotic state.
Two structures are observed close to the kinematic threshold in the Ξ 0 b π − mass spectrum in a sample of proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb − 1 , ...recorded by the LHCb experiment. In the quark model, two baryonic resonances with quark content b d s are expected in this mass region: the spin-parity J P = ( 1 / 2 ) + and J P = ( 3 / 2 ) + states, denoted Ξ ' − b and Ξ * − b . Interpreting the structures as these resonances, we measure the mass differences and the width of the heavier state to be m ( Ξ ' − b ) − m ( Ξ 0 b ) − m ( π − ) = 3.653 ± 0.018 ± 0.006 MeV / c 2 , m ( Ξ * − b ) − m ( Ξ 0 b ) − m ( π − ) = 23.96 ± 0.12 ± 0.06 MeV / c 2 , Γ ( Ξ * − b ) = 1.65 ± 0.31 ± 0.10 MeV , where the first and second uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The width of the lighter state is consistent with zero, and we place an upper limit of Γ ( Ξ ' − b ) < 0.08 MeV at 95% confidence level. Relative production rates of these states are also reported.
A search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decay Λc+→pμ+μ− is reported using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3.0 fb−1 collected by the LHCb Collaboration. No significant ...signal is observed outside of the dimuon mass regions around the ϕ and ω resonances, and an upper limit is placed on the branching fraction of B(Λc+→pμ+μ−)<7.7(9.6)×10−8 at 90%(95%) confidence level. A significant signal is observed in the ω dimuon mass region for the first time.
A search for the rare decay Σ^{+}→pμ^{+}μ^{-} is performed using pp collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies sqrts=7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated ...luminosity of 3 fb^{-1}. An excess of events is observed with respect to the background expectation, with a signal significance of 4.1 standard deviations. No significant structure is observed in the dimuon invariant mass distribution, in contrast with a previous result from the HyperCP experiment. The measured Σ^{+}→pμ^{+}μ^{-} branching fraction is (2.2_{-1.3}^{+1.8})×10^{-8}, where statistical and systematic uncertainties are included, which is consistent with the standard model prediction.
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