Search

A precision measurement of the muon charge asymmetry from $W$-boson decays in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$ is presented. The analysis utilizes data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$, recorded by the LHCb detector during 2016, 2017, and 2018. The asymmetry is measured for muons with transverse momentum between 25 and 55 GeV and pseudorapidity between 2.0 and 4.5. This result represents the most precise determination of the muon charge asymmetry in the forward region to date, exhibiting excellent agreement with next-to-next-to-leading-order predictions in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The measured asymmetries are corrected for experimental efficiencies, resolution, and final-state photon radiation.

A measurement of the flavor-untagged decay-time-integrated $CP$ asymmetry in the flavor-specific decay $B_s^0\to D_s^{-}{\pi }^{+}$, $⟨A_{\text{untagged}}^s⟩$, is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment between 2016 and 2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The $CP$ asymmetry is measured in two $D_s^{-}$ meson decay modes, $D_s^{-}\to K^{-}{K}^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ and $D_s^{-}\to {\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}$. The combined result, $⟨A_{\text{untagged}}^s⟩=(-1.4\pm 5.9(\mathrm{stat})\pm 1.1(\mathrm{syst}))\times {10}^{-3}$, is consistent with the Standard Model expectation and provides a direct constraint on new physics in tree-level $b$-hadron decays.

A search for $CP$ violation in the ${\overline{B}}^0\to {\overline{K}}^{*0}{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ decay is performed using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment during Run 1 and Run 2, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $8.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The analysis exploits the full angular distribution of the decay, providing sensitivity to $CP$-violating effects in both vector and axial-vector contributions to this flavor-changing neutral-current process. The complex Wilson coefficients are determined within the weak effective theory through an unbinned maximum-likelihood fit to the angular observables, incorporating nonlocal hadronic amplitudes across the full dimuon mass spectrum. The precision of the $CP$-violation observables is improved by an order of magnitude relative to previous measurements, with the imaginary parts of the Wilson coefficients now determined more precisely than the real parts. No significant $CP$ violation is observed, and the results are consistent with the standard model.

The first measurements of the top- and antitop-quark differential production cross sections and the top-quark charge asymmetry in the forward region are presented, using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The total production cross sections of top and antitop quarks are also determined. Measurements are performed using the $\mu +b\text{-jet}$ final state within a fiducial region defined by $b$-jet $p_{\mathrm{T},\text{jet}}>50\mathrm{GeV}$ and pseudorapidity $2.2<{\eta }_{\text{jet}}<4.0$, with the muon from the $W$-boson decay required to have $p_{\mathrm{T},\mu }>25\mathrm{GeV}$ and $2.0<{\eta }_{\mu }<4.5$. The muon and $b$-jet system must satisfy $p_{\mathrm{T}}(\mu +\text{jet})>20\mathrm{GeV}$. The measured integrated production cross sections for the top and antitop quarks are ${\sigma }_t=0.95\pm 0.04\pm 0.08\pm 0.02\mathrm{pb}$, ${\sigma }_{\overline{t}}=0.81\pm 0.03\pm 0.07\pm 0.02\mathrm{pb}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third accounts for the luminosity uncertainty. The top-quark charge asymmetry is measured to be $A_C^t=0.08\pm 0.03\pm 0.01$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. These results are consistent with next-to-leading order Standard Model predictions.

The first search for the lepton-flavor violating decays $B^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}{\mu }^{\pm }{e}^{\mp }$ in proton-proton collisions is presented, using data collected by the LHCb experiment between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. No significant signal is observed and an upper limit on the branching fraction is set at $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}{\mu }^{\pm }{e}^{\mp })<1.8\times {10}^{-9}$ at the 90% confidence level, 2 orders of magnitude more restrictive than the most stringent upper limit to date. This is the first constraint on lepton-flavor violating $b\to d$ quark transitions at the LHC and also sets the most stringent upper limits to date on $b\to d{\mu }^{\pm }{e}^{\mp }$ transitions. Limits on left-handed and scalar scenarios beyond the standard model are also reported.

Muon-electron universality is tested in $B^0\to K^{*0}{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ decays, in the dilepton-invariant-mass region above the $\psi (2S)$ resonance. The analysis uses beauty mesons produced in proton-proton collisions recorded by the LHCb detector at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The ratio of branching fractions between the muon and electron channels $R_{K^{*0}}$ is measured to be ${1.08}_{-0.12}^{+0.14}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.07(\mathrm{syst})$ for a dilepton-invariant-mass squared above $14.0{\mathrm{GeV}}^2/c^4$, consistent with the standard model prediction. This result represents the most precise measurement of $R_{K^{*0}}$ in this region and the first such measurement performed at a hadron collider.

The decay $B^0\to {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}_c^{-}{K}_{\mathrm{S}}^0$ is studied at LHCb for the first time using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The branching ratio relative to the decay $B^{+}\to {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}_c^{-}{K}^{+}$ is measured to be [$\mathcal{B}(B^0\to {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}_c^{-}{K}_{\mathrm{S}}^0)]/[\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}}_c^{-}{K}^{+})]=0.53\pm 0.05\pm 0.05$ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. Evidence is found for contributions from two resonant states, ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c(2923{)}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c(2939{)}^{+}$, in the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{K}_{\mathrm{S}}^0$ system. The two states show a significance of $3.9\sigma$ relative to the nonresonant hypothesis. These two ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_c^{+}$ states are consistent with being the isospin partners of the states observed in the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{K}^{-}$ system.

A precision measurement of the $W$-boson production cross section is performed using the $W\to \mu \nu$ decay channel, based on a sample of proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$ and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The cross section is measured for muons with transverse momentum between 25 and 55 GeV and pseudorapidity between 2.0 and 4.5. The total production cross sections of $W$ bosons are measured to be ${\sigma }_{W^{+}\to {\mu }^{+}\nu }=1754.2\pm 1.5\pm 11.8\pm 35.1\mathrm{pb}$ ${\sigma }_{W^{-}\to {\mu }^{-}\overline{\nu }}=1178.1\pm 1.3\pm 9.7\pm 23.6\mathrm{pb}$ where uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the luminosity determination, respectively. Differential distributions $\mathrm{d}{\sigma }_{W^{\pm }\to {\mu }^{\pm }\nu }/\mathrm{d}{\eta }^{{\mu }^{\pm }}$ are also presented. The total and differential cross sections are in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. This measurement is significantly more precise than previous results in this kinematic regime.

The first observation of the doubly charmed baryon ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_{cc}^{+}$ is reported through its decay to the ${\mathrm{\Lambda }}_c^{+}{K}^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ final state, with a statistical significance exceeding seven standard deviations. The observation is made using proton-proton collision data collected in 2024 with the LHCb Run 3 detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of $6.9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_{cc}^{+}$ mass is measured to be $3619.97\pm 0.83\pm {0.26}_{-1.30}^{+1.90}\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the unknown ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_{cc}^{+}$ lifetime, which is assumed to lie in the range 15–160 fs with a baseline value of 45 fs. The difference between the masses of the ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_{cc}^{+}$ and ${\mathrm{\Xi }}_{cc}^{++}$ baryons is determined to be $-1.77\pm 0.84\pm {0.15}_{-1.30}^{+1.90}\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$. This is the first observation of a new particle made with the LHCb Run 3 detector.

The onset of nuclear effects in light-ion collisions is studied by measuring the ratio of $D^0$ meson production between NeNe and OO collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 5.36 TeV recorded by the LHCb detector. The $D^0$ meson yields are measured differentially in transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}$) for $0.5<p_{\mathrm{T}}<20\mathrm{GeV}$ in the rapidity ($y$) region $2.0<y<4.5$, and are normalized to the total number of recorded inelastic nucleus-nucleus collisions in each data sample. The resulting production ratio shows evidence of variation as a function of $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, which is inconsistent with predictions based on nuclear modification of nucleon structure alone. This measurement is consistent with the onset of quark-gluon plasma production with increasing nucleus size in high-energy nuclear collisions.

A flavor-tagged time-dependent analysis of $B^0\to K_{\mathrm{S}}^0{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ decays is performed across the full dimuon mass range excluding the $J/\psi$ and $\psi (2S)$ resonance regions. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment in 2011–2018 at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The $CP$ violation parameters are determined to be $C=-0.13\pm 0.32\pm 0.04$, $S=+0.82\pm 0.29\pm 0.05$, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second are systematic. The results are consistent with the standard model prediction. This is the first experimental study of time-dependent $CP$ violation in $b\to s{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ processes.

The collinear and transverse-momentum-dependent jet fragmentation function and the radial profile for $B^{\pm }$ mesons in jets are measured. The $B^{\pm }$ mesons are reconstructed through the $J/\psi (\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})K^{\pm }$ decay channel using proton-proton collision data collected during 2016–2018 with the LHCb detector at a center-of-mass (c.m.) energy of $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The results complement recent measurements of jet fragmentation functions for heavy-flavor hadrons and suggest a growing contribution of gluon fragmentation to $B^{\pm }$ mesons as the jet transverse momentum increases.

An analysis of the $B^0\to K^{*0}(\to K^{+}{\pi }^{-}){\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ decay is presented using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $8.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The full set of $CP$-averaged and $CP$-asymmetric angular observables is determined in bins of the invariant mass squared of the dimuon system, as well as the branching fraction relative to the $B^0\to J/\psi (\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})K^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ decay. For the first time, the full set of observables pertaining to the $K^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ S-wave contribution to the final state are presented and consideration is given to effects arising from the mass of the muons. The extracted $CP$-asymmetry observables show no significant deviations from zero. The measurements of the $CP$-averaged observables and the branching fractions continue to exhibit the pattern of tensions with the standard model predictions that have been seen in previous analyses that use part of the dataset considered in this Letter.

A search for the rare decay $B^{+}\to \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$ is performed using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. An excess of events is found with respect to the background-only expectation, with a signal significance of 3.5 standard deviations, in the low invariant-mass region of $m(\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p)<2.8\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$. The branching fraction is measured to be ${\mathcal{B}}_{\mathrm{low}}(B^{+}\to \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})=(1.70_{-0.56}^{+0.65}(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.17(\mathrm{syst})\pm 0.14(\mathrm{ext}))\times {10}^{-8}$, where the last uncertainty is due to external inputs on $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to J/\psi \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p)\times \mathcal{B}(J/\psi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})$. With no significant signal observed in the high $m(\overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p)$ region above $2.8\mathrm{GeV}/c^2$, an upper limit is set to be ${\mathcal{B}}_{\mathrm{high}}(B^{+}\to \overline{\mathrm{\Lambda }}p{\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-})<2.8(3.7)\times {10}^{-9}$ at the 90% (95%) confidence level.

The first evidence for the decay $B^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}{e}^{+}{e}^{-}$ is reported using proton-proton collision data recorded by the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. A signal excess with a significance of $3.2\sigma$ is observed and the branching fraction is measured to be $\mathcal{B}(B^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}{e}^{+}{e}^{-})=({2.4}_{-0.8}^{+0.9}{}_{-0.2}^{+0.4})\times {10}^{-8}$, where the first set of uncertainties is statistical and the second is systematic. The result is consistent with the Standard Model expectation.

A measurement of the ratio of semileptonic branching fractions $\mathcal{R}(J/\psi )$, defined as $\mathcal{R}(J/\psi )\equiv \mathcal{B}(B_c^{+}\to J/\psi {\tau }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau })/\mathcal{B}(B_c^{+}\to J/\psi {\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })$, is reported using a sample of proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $5.4{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment in 2016–2018 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The measured value is found to be $\mathcal{R}(J/\psi )=0.51\pm 0.12(\mathrm{stat})\pm 0.08(\mathrm{syst})$, which is within 1.8 standard deviations of the predictions from the standard model assuming lepton flavor universality.