The LHCb vertex locator upgrade — the detector calibration overview

The Vertex Locator (VELO) is a silicon tracking detector in the spectrometer of the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment. LHCb explores and investigates CP violation phenomena in b- and c- hadron decays and is one of the experiments operating on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. After run 1 and run 2 of LHC data taking (2011–2018), the LHCb detectors are being modernized within the LHCb upgrade I program. The upgrade aims to adjust the spectrometer to readout at full LHC 40 MHz frequency, which requires radical changes to the technologies currently used in LHCb. The hardware trigger is removed, and some of the detectors replaced. The VELO changes its tracking technology and silicon strips are replaced by 55 μm pitch silicon pixels. The readout chip for the VELO upgrade is the VeloPix ASIC. The number of readout channels increases to over 40 million, and the hottest ASIC is expected to produce the output data rate of 15 Gbit/s. New conditions challenge the software and the hardware side of the readout system and put special attention on the detector monitoring. This paper presents the upgraded VELO design and outlines the software aspects of the detector calibration in the upgrade I. An overview of the challenges foreseen for the upgrade II is given.

Measurement of the W boson mass

The W boson mass is measured using proton-proton collision data at $$ \sqrt{s} $$ s = 13 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 fb−1 recorded during 2016 by the LHCb experiment. With a simultaneous fit of the muon q/pT distribution of a sample of W → μν decays and the ϕ* distribution of a sample of Z → μμ decays the W boson mass is determined to be$$ {m}_w=80354\pm {23}_{\mathrm{stat}}\pm {10}_{\mathrm{exp}}\pm {17}_{\mathrm{theory}}\pm {9}_{\mathrm{PDF}}\mathrm{MeV}, $$ m w = 80354 ± 23 stat ± 10 exp ± 17 theory ± 9 PDF MeV , where uncertainties correspond to contributions from statistical, experimental systematic, theoretical and parton distribution function sources. This is an average of results based on three recent global parton distribution function sets. The measurement agrees well with the prediction of the global electroweak fit and with previous measurements.

CP violation in charm

The existence of CP violation in the decays of strange and beauty mesons is very well established experimentally. On the contrary, CP violation in the decays of charmed particles has been elusive for a long time and has been observed for the first time in 2019 by the LHCb experiment. Since then several studies have been performed in the charm sector. During the LHC Run 1 and Run 2, the LHCb collaboration has collected large samples containing charm hadron decays, on a scale never seen before. Collected data enabled physicists to obtain several new results, most of which surpassed previous results and became new world’s best measurements. Presently the LHCb spectrometer is being upgraded to enhance readout system, improve subdetector components and increase integrated luminosity to 50 fb−1 by the end of Run 4.

The SALT—Readout ASIC for Silicon Strip Sensors of Upstream Tracker in the Upgraded LHCb Experiment

SALT, a new dedicated readout Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) for the Upstream Tracker, a new silicon detector in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment, has been designed and developed. It is a 128-channel chip using an innovative architecture comprising a low-power analogue front-end with fast pulse shaping and a 40 MSps 6-bit Analog-to-Digital Converter (ADC) in each channel, followed by a Digital Signal Processing (DSP) block performing pedestal and Mean Common Mode (MCM) subtraction and zero suppression. The prototypes of SALT were fabricated and tested, confirming the full chip functionality and fulfilling the specifications. A signal-to-noise ratio of about 20 is achieved for a silicon sensor with a 12 pF input capacitance. In this paper, the SALT architecture and measurements of the chip performance are presented.

Unleashing the full power of LHCb to probe Stealth New Physics

In this paper, we describe the potential of the LHCb experiment to detect Stealth physics. This refers to dynamics beyond the Standard Model that would elude searches that focus on energetic objects or precision measurements of known processes. Stealth signatures include long-lived particles and light resonances that are produced very rarely or together with overwhelming backgrounds. We will discuss why LHCb is equipped to discover this kind of physics at the Large Hadron Collider and provide examples of well-motivated theoretical models that can be probed with great detail at the experiment.

A Comparison of CPU and GPU Implementations for the LHCb Experiment Run 3 Trigger

The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment at CERN is undergoing an upgrade in preparation for the Run 3 data collection period at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As part of this upgrade, the trigger is moving to a full software implementation operating at the LHC bunch crossing rate. We present an evaluation of a CPU-based and a GPU-based implementation of the first stage of the high-level trigger. After a detailed comparison, both options are found to be viable. This document summarizes the performance and implementation details of these options, the outcome of which has led to the choice of the GPU-based implementation as the baseline.

First measurement of the $$C\!P$$-violating phase in $${{B} ^0_{s}} \!\rightarrow {{J /\psi }} ($$ $$\rightarrow $$ $$e ^+e ^-$$)$$\phi $$ decays

A flavour-tagged time-dependent angular analysis of $${{B} ^0_{s}} \!\rightarrow {{J /\psi }} \phi $$ B s 0 → J / ψ ϕ decays is presented where the $${J /\psi }$$ J / ψ meson is reconstructed through its decay to an $$e ^+e ^-$$ e + e - pair. The analysis uses a sample of pp collision data recorded with the LHCb experiment at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and $$8\text {\,Te V} $$ 8 \,Te V , corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $$3 \text {\,fb} ^{-1} $$ 3 \,fb - 1 . The $$C\!P$$ C P -violating phase and lifetime parameters of the $${B} ^0_{s} $$ B s 0 system are measured to be $${\phi _{{s}}} =0.00\pm 0.28\pm 0.07\text {\,rad}$$ ϕ s = 0.00 ± 0.28 ± 0.07 \,rad , $${\Delta \Gamma _{{s}}} =0.115\pm 0.045\pm 0.011\text {\,ps} ^{-1} $$ Δ Γ s = 0.115 ± 0.045 ± 0.011 \,ps - 1 and $${\Gamma _{{s}}} =0.608\pm 0.018\pm 0.012\text {\,ps} ^{-1} $$ Γ s = 0.608 ± 0.018 ± 0.012 \,ps - 1 where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. This is the first time that $$C\!P$$ C P -violating parameters are measured in the $${{B} ^0_{s}} \!\rightarrow {{J /\psi }} \phi $$ B s 0 → J / ψ ϕ decay with an $$e ^+e ^-$$ e + e - pair in the final state. The results are consistent with previous measurements in other channels and with the Standard Model predictions.

Prospects on searches for baryonic Dark Matter produced in $${\varvec{b}}$$-hadron decays at LHCb

A model that can simultaneously explain Dark Matter relic density and the apparent matter anti-matter imbalance of the universe has been recently proposed. The model requires b-hadron branching fractions to Dark Matter at the per mille level. The b-hadrons decay to a dark sector baryon, $$\psi _{\mathrm{DS}}$$ ψ DS , which has a mass in the region $$940 ~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2\le m_{\psi _{\mathrm{DS}}}\le 4430~\mathrm{MeV}/c^2$$ 940 MeV / c 2 ≤ m ψ DS ≤ 4430 MeV / c 2 . In this paper, we discuss the sensitivity of the LHCb experiment to search for this dark baryon, covering different types of topology and giving prospects for Runs 3 and 4 of the LHC, as well as for the proposed Upgrade II. We show that the LHCb experiment can cover the entire mass range of the hypothetical dark baryon.