The impact of recent measurements of heavy-flavour production in deep inelastic $ep$ scattering and in $pp$ collisions on parton distribution functions is studied in a QCD analysis in the fixed-flavour number scheme at next-to-leading order. Differential cross sections of charm- and beauty-hadron production measured by LHCb are used together with inclusive and heavy-flavour production cross sections in deep inelastic scattering at HERA. The heavy-flavour data of the LHCb experiment impose additional constraints on the gluon and the sea-quark distributions at low partonic fractions $x$ of the proton momentum, down to $x \sim 5 \times 10^{-6}$. This kinematic range is currently not covered by other experimental data in perturbative QCD fits.
We derive the consequences of the MFV hypothesis for $ΔF =1$ flavour observables based on the latest LHCb data. Any future measurements beyond the MFV bounds and relations unambiguously indicate the existence of new flavour structures next to the Yukawa couplings of the Standard Model.
The coupling of the electroweak gauge bosons of the Standard Model (SM) to leptons is flavour universal. Extensions of the SM do not necessarily have this property. Rare decays of heavy flavour are suppressed in the SM and new particles may give sizeable contributions to these processes, therefore, their precise study allows for sensitive tests of lepton flavour universality. Of particular interest are rare b to sll decays that are well accessible at the LHCb experiment. Recent results from LHCb on lepton flavour universality in rare b to sll decays are discussed.
Semileptonic $b \rightarrow s\ell \ell$ processes constitute a good probe for new physics phenomena: new particles contributing to the loops could affect branching fractions and angular distributions, and have different couplings to different lepton families, thus violating lepton flavour universality. Recent results from the LHCb experiment are reviewed.
Heavy flavour physics provides excellent opportunities to indirectly search for new physics at very high energy scales and to study hadron properties for deep understanding of the strong interaction. The LHCb experiment has been playing a leading role in the study of heavy flavour physics since the start of the LHC operations about ten years ago, and made a range of high-precision measurements and unexpected discoveries, which may have far-reaching implications on the field of particle physics. This review highlights a selection of the most influential physics results on CP violation, rare dec…
We argue that the recent LHCb observation of J/psi-pair production indicates a significant contribution from double parton scattering, in addition to the standard single parton scattering component. We propose a method to measure the double parton scattering at LHCb using leptonic final states from the decay of two prompt J/psi mesons.
We describe parton density function sensitivity studies, using muon final states produced through the Drell-Yan process via W, Z or $γ^*$ down to a Q^2 of 10 GeV^2. This makes use of LHCb's unique ability to trigger on low transverse momentum objects. Due to the forward acceptance of LHCb, x values down to 2 10^{-6} can be probed, where with just 100 pb-1 of data, the gluon PDF can improved up to 70%.
A range of flavour physics observables show tensions with their corresponding Standard Model expectations: measurements of leptonic flavour-changing neutral current processes and ratios of semi-leptonic branching fractions involving different generations of leptons show deviations of the order of four standard deviations. If confirmed, either would be an intriguing sign of new physics. In this manuscript, we analyse the current experimental situation of such processes and for the first time estimate the combined impact of the future datasets of the Belle II and LHCb experiments on the present …
At LHCb, proton parton distribution functions (PDFs) can be studied in a unique phase space complementary to that accessible by ATLAS and CMS, corresponding to low and high values of Bjorken-$x$. The measurements of vector boson production in the forward region, with and without an associated jet, are presented. These measurements can be used to constrain the proton PDFs, and in particular, the production of a $Z$ boson in association with a $c$-jet can be studied to measure the intrinsic charm content of the proton.
The direct searches for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) particles have been constraining their mass scale to the extent where it is now becoming consensual that such particles are likely to be above the energy reach of the LHC. Meanwhile, the studies of indirect probes of BSM physics, with all their diversity, have been progressing both in accurracy and in setting up observables with reduced theoretical uncertainties. The observation of flavour anomalies in $b$ hadron decays represents an important part of the program of indirect detection of BSM physics. Several benchmark analyses involving lepto…
In this high-$x$ region, both the flavour content and structure of the nucleon parton distribution functions remains relatively poorly known. New LHCb measurements of Z and charm jet associated production could indicate a valence-like intrinsic-charm component in the proton wave function, and measurements of Z production in pPb collisions provide new constraints on the partonic structure of nucleons bound inside nuclei. Here we will discuss these new LHCb measurements and comparisons with state-of-the-art parton distribution function calculations.
In the Standard Model of particle physics, charged leptons of different flavour couple to the electroweak force carriers with the same interaction strength. This property, known as lepton flavour universality, was found to be consistent with experimental evidence in a wide range of particle decays. Lepton flavour universality can be tested by comparing branching fractions in ratios such as $R_K = \mathcal{B}(B^+ \rightarrow K^+ μ^+ μ^-)/\mathcal{B}(B^+ \rightarrow K^+ e^+ e^-)$. This observable is measured using proton-proton collision data recorded with the LHCb detector at CERN's Large Hadro…
Recent results on production of $J/ψ$ pairs in LHCb initiated discussion on double parton scattering (DPS) contribution to this process, which is not yet elaborated well. In this short report $J/ψχ_c$ and $J/ψΥ$ modes are proposed for DPS studies. Estimations for $ΥΥ$ and $J/ψΥ$ production in LHCb are presented.
We calculate differential cross sections for $c \bar c$- and $b \bar b$-dijet production in $pp$-scattering at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV in the $k_T$-factorization and hybrid approaches with different unintegrated parton distribution functions (uPDFs). We present distributions in transverse momentum and pseudorapidity of the leading jet, rapidity difference between the jets and the dijet invariant mass. Our results are compared to recent LHCb data on forward production of heavy flavour dijets, measured recently for the first time individually for both, charm and bottom flavours. We found that an agr…
The startup of the LHC opens many new frontiers in precision flavour physics, in particular expanding the field of precision time-dependent CP violation measurements to the $B^0_s$ system. This contribution reviews the status of time-dependent measurements of the CKM angle $γ$ at the LHC's dedicated flavour physics experiment, LHCb. Particular attention is given to the measurement of $γ$ from the decay mode \DsK, a theoretically clean and precise method which is unique to LHCb. The performance of the LHCb detector for this and related modes is reviewed in light of early data taking and found t…
We calculate the next-to-leading-order cross section for the inclusive production of $Λ_b$ baryons in pp collisions in the general-mass variable-flavor-number scheme. We use realistic evolved non-perturbative fragmentation functions obtained from fits to B-meson production in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation and compare our results for transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions with recent experimental data from the CMS and the LHCb collaborations at the CERN LHC. We find satisfactory agreement in general, with some indication for the need to modify the available fragmentation functions at larger va…
We consider the impact that can be made on our understanding of parton distributions (PDFs) and QCD from early measurements at the LHCb experiment. The high rapidity values make the experiment uniquely suited to a detailed study of small-x parton distributions and hence will make a significant contribution towards the clarification of both experimental and theoretical uncertainties on PDFs and their applications.
We present an algorithm for deriving partonic flavour labels to be applied to truth particle jets in Monte Carlo event simulations. The inputs to this approach are final pre-hadronization partons, to remove dependence on unphysical details such as the order of matrix element calculation and shower generator frame recoil treatment. These are clustered using standard jet algorithms, modified to restrict the allowed pseudojet combinations to those in which tracked flavour labels are consistent with QCD and QED Feynman rules. The resulting algorithm is shown to be portable between the major famili…
We study the prospects for observing double parton scattering through four-muon final states, forming two opposite-sign muon pairs, in the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at 14 TeV centre of mass energy. We consider two special cases, namely double Drell-Yan and J/psi-pair production. The kinematic properties and prospects for observing these processes are discussed. We find that the production rate depends strongly on the origin of the four muons, while many kinematic properties can be used to help identify the presence of double parton scattering events.
The impact of measurements of heavy-flavour production in deep inelastic $ep$ scattering and in $pp$ collisions on parton distribution functions is studied in a QCD analysis at next-to-leading order. Recent combined results of inclusive and heavy-flavour production cross sections in deep inelastic scattering at HERA are investigated together with heavy-flavour production measurements at the LHC. Differential cross sections of charm- and beauty-hadron production measured by the LHCb collaboration at the centre-of-mass energies of 5, 7 and 13 TeV as well as the recent measurements of the ALICE e…
We quantify the constraints on the flavour separation between the quarks and antiquarks in the proton provided by the recent forward weak gauge boson production data from the LHCb experiment at $\sqrt{s}=7$ and 8 TeV. Performed in the framework of the NNPDF3.1 global analysis, this study highlights the key role that the LHCb W and Z data have in achieving a robust quark flavour separation in the large-x region, including the strange and charm quarks. We demonstrate how the LHCb measurements lead to improved determinations of the the up and down quark PDFs in the region $x\ge 0.1$, with an unce…
We analyse the new physics implications of theoretically clean $b \to s$ observables in a model-independent approach and compare their coherence with the implications of other rare $B$-decays. A statistical comparison is done between the New Physics explanation and hadronic contributions as the source of the anomalies in angular observables of the $B\to K^*μμ$ decay. We make projections for future measurements that indicate that LHCb will be in the position to discover lepton non-universality via a single observable using the Run 3 data. The global fit of rare $B$-decays is given within a mult…
Several experiments observed deviations from the Standard Model (SM) in the flavour sector: LHCb found a $4-5\,σ$ discrepancy compared to the SM in $b\to sμ^+μ^-$ transitions (recently supported by an Belle analysis) and CMS reported a non-zero measurement of $h\toμτ$ with a significance of $2.4\,σ$. Furthermore, BELLE, BABAR and LHCb founds hints for the violation of flavour universality in $B\to D^{(*)}τν$. In addition, there is the long-standing discrepancy in the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Interestingly, all these anomalies are related to muons and taus, while the corresponding…
Because of its forward coverage, LHCb can probe the valence quark distributions of protons and nuclei at small and large Bjorken-x with high precision. This proceeding presents new LHCb measurements of Z boson production in association with charm jet in the forward region of proton-proton collisions and Z boson production in proton-lead collisions. Z+charm jet production could be sensitive to a valence-like intrinsic-charm component in the proton wave function. The measurements of Z production in proton-lead collisions provide new constraints on the partonic structure of nucleons inside nuclei…
The factorization of short-distance partonic cross-sections from universal long-distance kinematic distributions is fundamental to phenomenology at hadron colliders. It has been predicted however that observables sensitive to momenta transverse to the direction of an energetic parton cannot be factorized in the usual way, even at high energies. It should be possible to study this factorization breaking using Z+jet production in high-energy proton-proton collisions by studying azimuthal correlations between a Z boson and associated charged hadrons. A plan to perform this measurement with data c…
We generate fixed three- and four-light-flavour sets of partons using MRST2004 partons as input. We show that it is important to set n_f=3 in the strong coupling, as well as in the splitting and coefficient functions, in order to obtain a consistent set of fixed-flavour partons. We compare the description of data using partons in both variable- and fixed-flavour-number-schemes.
The production of weak gauge bosons in association with heavy flavored mesons at the LHCb conditions is considered, and a detailed study of the different contributing processes is presented including single (SPS) and double (DPS) parton scattering mechanisms. We find that the usual DPS factorization formula needs to be corrected for the limited partonic phase space, and that including the relevant corrections reduces discrepancies in the associated $ZD$ production. We conclude finally that double parton scattering dominates the production of same-sign $W^\pm D^\pm$ states, as well as the produ…
Several experiments observed deviations from the Standard Model (SM) in the flavour sector: LHCb found a $4-5\,σ$ discrepancy compared to the SM in $b\to sμ^+μ^-$ transitions (recently supported by an Belle analysis) and CMS reported a non-zero measurement of $h\toμτ$ with a significance of $2.4\,σ$. Furthermore, BELLE, BABAR and LHCb founds hints for the violation of flavour universality in $B\to D^{(*)}τν$. In addition, there is the long-standing discrepancy in the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. Interestingly, all these anomalies are related to muons and taus, while the corresponding…
The calculations of $Z + b{\bar b}$ tagged jet production performed in the four- and five-flavour schemes allow for detailed comparison of the heavy flavour structure of collinear and transverse momentum dependent (TMD) parton distributions as well as for detailed investigations of heavy quarks radiated during the initial state parton shower cascade. We have determined the first set of collinear and TMD parton distributions in the four-flavour scheme with NLO DGLAP splitting functions within the Parton-Branching (PB) approach. The four- and five-flavour PB-TMD distributions were used to calcul…
We report on a high-precision calculation of the Bhabha process in Quantum Electrodynamics, of interest for precise luminosity determination of electron-positron colliders involved in R measurements in the region of hadronic resonances. The calculation is based on the matching of exact next-to-leading order corrections with a Parton Shower algorithm. The accuracy of the approach is demonstrated in comparison with existing independent calculations and through a detailed analysis of the main components of theoretical uncertainty, including two-loop corrections, hadronic vacuum polarization and l…
We study the potential of the LHCb 13 TeV single $W^{\pm}$ and $Z$ boson pseudo-data for constraining the parton distribution functions (PDFs) of the proton. As an example, we demonstrate the sensitivity of the LHCb 13 TeV data, collected with integrated luminosities of 5 fb$^{-1}$ and 300 fb$^{-1}$, to reducing the PDF uncertainty bands of the CT14HERA2 PDFs, using the error PDF updating package {\sc ePump}. The sensitivities of various experimental observables are compared. Generally, sizable reductions in PDF uncertainties can be observed in the 300 fb$^{-1}$ data sample, particularly in th…
In this work, the impact of recent measurements of heavy-flavour production in $pp$ collisions on parton distribution functions (PDFs) and their uncertainties is studied. In this regard, the absolute and normalised cross sections of beauty hadron production measured by LHCb at center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV and 13 TeV are separately included in the next-to-leading order (NLO) global QCD analysis together with the measurements of the inclusive and heavy-flavour production cross sections at HERA. It is illustrated that the heavy-flavour data of the LHCb experiment impose additional constraints o…
We study the inclusive DbarD and DD pair production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at lead- ing order of the parton Reggeization approach endowed with universal scale-depended fragmen- tation functions for c-quark to D-meson and for gluon to D-meson transitions. We have described DbarD and DD distributions in azimuthal angle, as well as transverse momentum, rapidity distance, and invariant mass measured in the region of large rapidity 2 < y < 4 by the LHCb Collabora- tion at the LHC without free parameters. We have used Reggeized amplitudes for the processes RR - gg and RR - c barc whi…
Rare decays of heavy-flavoured particles provide an ideal laboratory to look for deviations from the Standard Model, and explore energy regimes beyond the LHC reach. Decays proceeding via electroweak penguin diagrams are excellent probes to search for New Physics, and $b \to s \ell^{+}\ell^{-}$ processes are particularly interesting since they give access to many observables such as branching fractions, asymmetries and angular observables. Recent results from the LHCb experiment are reviewed.
The production of D mesons in proton-proton collisions at the LHCb detector is studied. We consider the single production of D^0, D^+, D^star, and D_s^+ mesons and correlation spectra in the production of DbarD and DD pairs at the sqrt{S}=7 TeV and sqrt{S}=13 TeV. In case of the single D-meson production we calculate differential cross sections over transverse momentum p_T while in the pair DbarD,DD-meson production the cross sections are calculated over the azimuthal angle difference, rapidity difference, invariant mass of the pair M and over the p_T of the one meson from a pair. The cross se…
We investigate whether the triple-parton scattering effects can be observed in open charm production in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. We use so-called factorized Ansatz for calculations of hard multiple-parton interactions. The numerical results for each parton interaction are obtained within the $k_{T}$-factorization approach. Predictions for one, two and three $c\bar c$ pairs production are given for $\sqrt{s}= 7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s}= 13$ TeV. Quite large cross sections, of the order of milibarns, for the triple-parton scattering mechanism are obtained. We suggest a measurement of three…
During last decade a number of detailed analyses of flavour observables and of their correlations within more than a dozen specific BSM models have been performed at the TUM. One of the goals of these analyses was to investigate which model is capable of obtaining large mixing induced CP asymmetry in the B_s system, S_{psi phi}, and to find out what this would imply for other flavour observables. In this context also the rare decays B_{s,d}->mu^+ mu^- have been considered. In some models their branching ratios can be enhanced by orders of magnitude above the SM expectations. The recent data on…
Rare decays are flavour changing neutral current processes that are loop-suppressed in the Standard Model (SM). New particles in SM extensions can therefore give significant contributions, modifying branching fractions and angular distributions. Consequently, rare decays are particularly sensitive probes for New Physics (NP). These proceedings summarize the latest results from the LHCb experiment on rare decays. While most results are in good agreement with SM predictions, some tensions that recently appeared in rare semileptonic $b\to s\ell^+\ell^-$ decays are also discussed.
We discuss the implications of B_s -> mu+mu- and B -> K*mu+mu- decays in the context of indirect searches for new physics, emphasising the new LHCb results. In particular, we derive the consequences of the MFV hypothesis and discuss the importance of the MFV predictions. The impact of the recent LHCb measurements in the context of the MSSM will also be addressed, and the SuperIso program will be briefly described.
In view of the emerging hints for the violation of lepton flavour universality in several $B$-meson decays, we conduct a model-independent study (effective field theory approach) of several well-motivated new physics scenarios. Taking into account the most recent LHCb data, we provide updates to Wilson coefficient fits for numerous popular new physics hypotheses. We also consider a promising model of vector leptoquarks, which in addition to explaining the $B$-meson decay anomalies ($R_{K^{(*)}}$ and $R_{D^{(*)}}$) would have an extensive impact for numerous flavour observables. We identify pro…
LHCb found hints for physics beyond the Standard Model (SM) in $B\to K^*μ^+μ^-$, $R(K)$ and $B_s\toϕμ^+μ^-$. These intriguing hints for NP have recently been confirmed by the LHCb measurement of $R(K^*)$ giving a combined significance for NP above the $5\,σ$ level. In addition, the BABAR, BELLE and LHCb results for $B\to D^{(*)}τν$ also point towards lepton flavour universality (LFU) violating new physics (NP). Furthermore, there is the long-standing discrepancy between the measurement and the theory prediction of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon ($a_μ$) at the $3\,σ$ level. Concernin…
We present hadron-level predictions from the Monte Carlo generator Cascade and numerical calculations of charm and beauty production at the Fermilab Tevatron within the framework of the $k_T$-factorization QCD approach. Our consideration is based on the CCFM-evolved unintegrated gluon densities in a proton. The performed analysis covers the total and differential cross sections of open charm and beauty quarks, $B$ and $D$ mesons (or rather muons from their semileptonic decays) and the total and differential cross sections of $b \bar b$ di-jet hadroproduction. We study the theoretical uncertain…
The latest LHCb angular analysis of the rare decay B -> K* mu+ mu- shows some discrepancies from the SM up to the 3.7 sigma level. There is a consistent new physics explanation of these anomalies, while it is also reasonable that these anomalies are just statistical fluctuations and/or a direct consequence of underestimated hadronic uncertainties. We briefly discuss possible cross-checks of the various hypotheses with an analysis of the inclusive B -> Xs l+ l- based on the data collected by the B factories Babar and Belle and also based on future opportunities at SuperBelle. We also present a …
Motivated by the possibility that it may be misleading to assume SU(3) symmetry in the analysis of hyperon β-decays, we study the sensitivity of the polarized parton densities, derived from the world data on inclusive polarized deep inelastic lepton-nucleon scattering, to variation of the value of the nonsinglet axial charge a_8 from its SU(3) value of 3F-D.
We calculate the rate of double open charm production in the forward kinematics studied recently in the LHCb experiment. We find that the mean field approximation for the double parton GPD (Generalized parton distributions), which neglects parton - parton correlations, underestimates the rate by a factor of two. The enhancement due to the perturbative QCD correlation \12 mechanism which explains the rate of double parton interactions at the central rapidities is found to explain 60 $÷$ 80 \% of the discrepancy. We argue that the nonperturbative fluctuations leading to non-factorized (correlate…
We study the implications of the recent measurements of $R_K$ and $R_{K^*}$ by the LHCb collaboration. We do that by adopting a model-independent approach based on the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT), in which the dominant new physics effects are encoded in the coefficients of dimension-six operators respecting the full Standard Model (SM) gauge symmetry. After providing simplified expressions for $R_K$ and $R_{K^\ast}$, we determine the implications of the recent LHCb results for these observables on the coefficients of the SMEFT operators at low and high energies. We also take …
Lepton Flavour Universality tests with semileptonic $Λ_b\toΛ_c^*$ decays are important to corroborate the present anomalies in the similar ratios $R_{D^{(*)}}$, and can provide complementary constraints on possible origins of these anomalies beyond the Standard Model. In this paper we provide - for the first time - all the necessary theoretical ingredients to perform and interpret measurements of $R_{Λ_c^*}$ at the LHCb experiment. For this, we revisit the heavy-quark expansion of the relevant hadronic matrix elements, and provide their expressions to order $α_s$ and $1/m$ accuracy. Moreover, …
We use comparison with recent LHCb data on single Z/γ^* production and decay to lepton pairs as a vehicle to study the current status of the application of our approach of {\it exact} amplitude-based resummation in quantum field theory to precision QCD calculations, by realistic MC event generator methods, as needed for precision LHC physics. This represents an extension of the phase space of our previous studies based on comparison with CMS and ATLAS data, as the pseudo-rapidity range measured by the LHCb for leptons in the data we study is 2.0<η< 4.5 to be compared with |η|<4.6(2.4) in our p…
We discuss how the operator product expansion (OPE) can be used to derive asymptotic expressions for certain integrals. This yields operator matrix elements (OME's) which determine the matching conditions for $\bar{\rm MS}$ parton densities across heavy flavour thresholds. Then we construct four and five-flavour densities from a three-flavour set via the AP equation using LO and NLO splitting functions.
We discuss production of two pairs of $c \bar c$ in proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Both double-parton scattering (DPS) and single-parton scattering (SPS) contributions are included in the analysis. Each step of DPS is calculated within $k_t$-factorization approach. The conditions how to identify the DPS contribution are presented. The discussed mechanism leads to the production of pairs of mesons: each containing $c$ quarks or each containing $\bar c$ antiquarks. We discuss corresponding production rates and some differential distributions for $(D^0 D^0$ + $\bar D^0 \bar D^0)$ production…
We discuss production of $D^0 D^0$ (and ${\bar D}^0 {\bar D}^0$) pairs related to the LHCb Collaboration results for $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV in proton-proton scattering. We consider double-parton scattering (DPS) mechanisms of double $c \bar c$ production and subsequent $cc \to D^{0}D^{0}$ hadronization as well as double $g$ and mixed $g c\bar c $ production with $gg \to D^{0}D^{0}$ and $gc \to D^{0}D^{0}$ hadronization calculated with the help of the scale-dependent hadronization functions of Kniehl et al. Single-parton scattering (SPS) mechanism of digluon production is also taken into account. W…
In this note we formulate and investigate theoretical uncertainties for high Q^2 deep inelastic heavy quark (charm, etc.) production rates which arise within collinear resummation techniques from variations of the a priori unknown charm input scale Q_0 of O(alpha_s) variable flavour number schemes. We show that Q_0 variations constitute a source of considerable theoretical uncertainty of present O(alpha_s) calculations within such schemes and we suggest to consider a scale optimization from higher order corrections. We also outline how the stability of the fixed order and collinearly resummed …
We introduce a novel realization of the open heavy-flavour hadroproduction in general-mass variable flavour number scheme at next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD. The principal novelty with respect to the earlier works is in the treatment of small-transverse-momentum limit, which has been a particularly challenging kinematic region in the past. We show that by a suitable choice of scheme, it is possible to obtain a well-behaved description of the open heavy-flavour hadroproduction cross sections from zero up to asymptotically high transverse momentum. We contrast our calculation with the …
