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The standard model of particle physics currently provides our best description of fundamental particles and their interactions. The theory predicts that the different charged leptons, the electron, muon and tau, have identical electroweak interaction strengths. Previous measurements have shown that a wide range of particle decays are consistent with this principle of lepton universality. This article presents evidence for the breaking of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays, with a significance of 3.1 standard deviations, based on proton–proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are of processes in which a beauty meson transforms into a strange meson with the emission of either an electron and a positron, or a muon and an antimuon. If confirmed by future measurements, this violation of lepton universality would imply physics beyond the standard model, such as a new fundamental interaction between quarks and leptons. The Large Hadron Collider beauty collaboration reports a test of lepton flavour universality in decays of bottom mesons into strange mesons and a charged lepton pair, finding evidence of a violation of this principle postulated in the standard model.

Quantum chromodynamics, the theory of the strong force, describes interactions of coloured quarks and gluons and the formation of hadronic matter. Conventional hadronic matter consists of baryons and mesons made of three quarks and quark-antiquark pairs, respectively. Particles with an alternative quark content are known as exotic states. Here a study is reported of an exotic narrow state in the D 0 D 0 π + mass spectrum just below the D *+ D 0 mass threshold produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The state is consistent with the ground isoscalar T c c + tetraquark with a quark content of c c u ¯ d ¯ and spin-parity quantum numbers J P  = 1 + . Study of the DD mass spectra disfavours interpretation of the resonance as the isovector state. The decay structure via intermediate off-shell D *+ mesons is consistent with the observed D 0 π + mass distribution. To analyse the mass of the resonance and its coupling to the D * D system, a dedicated model is developed under the assumption of an isoscalar axial-vector T c c + state decaying to the D * D channel. Using this model, resonance parameters including the pole position, scattering length, effective range and compositeness are determined to reveal important information about the nature of the T c c + state. In addition, an unexpected dependence of the production rate on track multiplicity is observed. The existence and properties of tetraquark states with two heavy quarks and two light antiquarks have been widely debated. Here, the authors use a unitarized model to study the properties of an exotic narrow state compatible with a doubly charmed tetraquark.

A bstract The production cross-section of J/ψ pairs is measured using a data sample of pp collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 279 ±11 pb −1 . The measurement is performed for J/ψ mesons with a transverse momentum of less than 10 GeV/ c in the rapidity range 2 . 0 < y < 4 . 5. The production cross-section is measured to be 15 . 2 ± 1 . 0 ± 0 . 9 nb. The first uncertainty is statistical, and the second is systematic. The differential cross-sections as functions of several kinematic variables of the J/ψ pair are measured and compared to theoretical predictions.

A bstract A precision measurement of the Z boson production cross-section at s = 13 TeV in the forward region is presented, using pp collision data collected by the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.1 fb − 1 . The production cross-section is measured using Z → μ + μ − events within the fiducial region defined as pseudorapidity 2 . 0 < η < 4 . 5 and transverse momentum p T > 20 GeV /c for both muons and dimuon invariant mass 60 < M μμ < 120 GeV /c 2 . The integrated cross-section is determined to be σ Z → μ + μ − = 196.4 ± 0.2 ± 1.6 ± 3.9 pb , where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, and the third is due to the luminosity determination. The measured results are in agreement with theoretical predictions within uncertainties.

A bstract Coherent production of J/ψ mesons is studied in ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5 TeV, using a data sample collected by the LHCb experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 10 μb −1 . The J/ψ mesons are reconstructed in the dimuon final state and are required to have transverse momentum below 1 GeV. The cross-section within the rapidity range of 2 . 0 < y < 4 . 5 is measured to be 4 . 45 ± 0 . 24 ± 0 . 18 ± 0 . 58 mb, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third originates from the luminosity determination. The cross-section is also measured in J/ψ rapidity intervals. The results are compared to predictions from phenomenological models.

A measurement of D 0 meson production by the LHCb experiment in its fixed-target configuration is presented. The production of D 0 mesons is studied with a beam of 2.5  Te V protons colliding on a gaseous neon target at rest, corresponding to a nucleon–nucleon centre-of-mass energy of s NN = 68.5 Ge V . The sum of the D 0 and D ¯ 0 production cross-section in p Ne collisions in the centre-of-mass rapidity range y ⋆ ∈ [ - 2.29 , 0 ] is found to be σ D 0 y ⋆ ∈ [ - 2.29 , 0 ] = 48.2 ± 0.3 ± 4.5 μ b / nucleon where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The D 0 - D ¯ 0 production asymmetry is also evaluated and suggests a trend towards negative values at large negative y ⋆ . The considered models do not account precisely for all the features observed in the LHCb data, but theoretical predictions including 1 % intrinsic charm and 10 % recombination contributions better describe the data than the other models considered.

A bstract The ratio of production cross-sections of ψ (2 S ) over J/ψ mesons as a function of charged-particle multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy s = 13 TeV is measured with a data sample collected by the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 658 pb − 1 . The ratio is measured for both prompt and non-prompt ψ (2 S ) and J/ψ mesons. When there is an overlap between the rapidity ranges over which multiplicity and charmonia production are measured, a multiplicity-dependent modification of the ratio is observed for prompt mesons. No significant multiplicity dependence is found when the ranges do not overlap. For non-prompt production, the ψ (2 S )-to- J/ψ production ratio is roughly independent of multiplicity, irrespective of the rapidity range over which the multiplicity is measured. The results are compared to predictions of the co-mover model and agree well except in the low multiplicity region. The ratio of production cross-sections of ψ (2 S ) over J/ψ mesons are cross-checked with other measurements in di-lepton channels and found to be compatible.

A search for the doubly charmed baryon Ξ c c + is performed through its decay to the Λ c + K − π + final state, using proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV. The data correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb −1 . No significant signal is observed in the mass range from 3.4 to 3.8 GeV/ c 2 . Upper limits are set at 95% credibility level on the ratio of the Ξ c c + production cross-section times the branching fraction to that of Λ c + and Ξ c c + + baryons. The limits are determined as functions of the Ξ c c + mass for different lifetime hypotheses, in the rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and the transverse momentum range from 4 to 15 GeV/ c .

A bstract The Ξ cc + + → Ξ c ′ + π + decay is observed using proton-proton collisions collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5 . 4 fb − 1. The Ξ cc + + → Ξ c ′ + π + decay is reconstructed partially, where the photon from the Ξ c ′ + → Ξ c + γ decay is not reconstructed and the pK − π + final state of the Ξ c + baryon is employed. The Ξ cc + + → Ξ c ′ + π + branching fraction relative to that of the Ξ cc + + → Ξ c + π + decay is measured to be 1 . 41 ± 0 . 17 ± 0 . 10, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.

A bstract The production cross-section of J/ψ pairs in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 13 TeV is measured using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4 . 2 fb − 1 collected by the LHCb experiment. The measurement is performed with both J/ψ mesons in the transverse momentum range 0 < p T < 14 GeV/ c and rapidity range 2 . 0 < y < 4 . 5. The cross-section of this process is measured to be 16 . 36 ± 0 . 28 (stat) ± 0 . 88 (syst) nb. The contributions from single-parton scattering and double-parton scattering are separated based on the dependence of the cross-section on the absolute rapidity difference ∆ y between the two J/ψ mesons. The effective cross-section of double-parton scattering is measured to be σ eff = 13 . 1 ± 1 . 8 (stat) ± 2 . 3 (syst) mb. The distribution of the azimuthal angle ϕ CS of one of the J/ψ mesons in the Collins-Soper frame and the p T -spectrum of the J/ψ pairs are also measured for the study of the gluon transverse-momentum dependent distributions inside protons. The extracted values of ⟨cos 2 ϕ CS ⟩ and ⟨cos 4 ϕ CS ⟩ are consistent with zero, but the presence of azimuthal asymmetry at a few percent level is allowed.