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Test of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays
Abstract 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.
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Award ID(s):
Publication Date:
NSF-PAR ID:
10349065
Journal Name:
Nature Physics
Volume:
18
Issue:
3
Page Range or eLocation-ID:
277 to 282
ISSN:
1745-2473
1. A bstract A search for new heavy resonances decaying to a pair of Higgs bosons (HH) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is presented. Data were collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016–2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb − 1 . Resonances with a mass between 0.8 and 4.5 TeV are considered using events in which one Higgs boson decays into a bottom quark pair and the other into final states with either one or two charged leptons. Specifically, the single-lepton decay channel $$\mathrm{HH}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}{\mathrm{WW}}^{\ast}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}\ell v\mathrm{q}{\overline{\mathrm{q}}}^{\prime }$$ HH → b b ¯ WW ∗ → b b ¯ ℓ v q q ¯ ′ and the dilepton decay channels $$\mathrm{HH}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}{\mathrm{WW}}^{\ast}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}\ell v\ell v$$ HH → b b ¯ WW ∗ → b b ¯ ℓ v ℓ v and $$\mathrm{HH}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}\uptau \uptau \to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}\ell vv\ell vv$$ HH → b b ¯ ττ → b b ¯ ℓ vv ℓ vv are examined, where ℓ in the final state corresponds to an electron or muon. The signal is extracted using a two-dimensional maximum likelihood fit of the $$\mathrm{H}\to \mathrm{b}\overline{\mathrm{b}}$$ H →more »
3. A bstract The p T -differential production cross sections of prompt and non-prompt (produced in beauty-hadron decays) D mesons were measured by the ALICE experiment at midrapidity ( | y | < 0 . 5) in proton-proton collisions at $$\sqrt{s}$$ s = 5 . 02 TeV. The data sample used in the analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of (19 . 3 ± 0 . 4) nb − 1 . D mesons were reconstructed from their decays D 0 → K − π + , D + → K − π + π + , and $${\mathrm{D}}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}\to \upphi {\uppi}^{+}\to {\mathrm{K}}^{-}{\mathrm{K}}^{+}{\uppi}^{+}$$ D s + → ϕ π + → K − K + π + and their charge conjugates. Compared to previous measurements in the same rapidity region, the cross sections of prompt D + and $${\mathrm{D}}_{\mathrm{s}}^{+}$$ D s + mesons have an extended p T coverage and total uncertainties reduced by a factor ranging from 1.05 to 1.6, depending on p T , allowing for a more precise determination of their p T -integrated cross sections. The results are well described by perturbative QCD calculations. The fragmentation fraction of heavy quarks to strange mesonsmore »
5. Abstract The rate for Higgs ( $${\mathrm{H}}$$ H ) bosons production in association with either one ( $${\mathrm{t}} {\mathrm{H}}$$ t H ) or two ( $${\mathrm{t}} {{\overline{{{\mathrm{t}}}}}} {\mathrm{H}}$$ t t ¯ H ) top quarks is measured in final states containing multiple electrons, muons, or tau leptons decaying to hadrons and a neutrino, using proton–proton collisions recorded at a center-of-mass energy of $$13\,\text {TeV}$$ 13 TeV by the CMS experiment. The analyzed data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 $$\,\text {fb}^{-1}$$ fb - 1 . The analysis is aimed at events that contain $${\mathrm{H}} \rightarrow {\mathrm{W}} {\mathrm{W}}$$ H → W W , $${\mathrm{H}} \rightarrow {\uptau } {\uptau }$$ H → τ τ , or $${\mathrm{H}} \rightarrow {\mathrm{Z}} {\mathrm{Z}}$$ H → Z Z decays and each of the top quark(s) decays either to lepton+jets or all-jet channels. Sensitivity to signal is maximized by including ten signatures in the analysis, depending on the lepton multiplicity. The separation among $${\mathrm{t}} {\mathrm{H}}$$ t H , $${\mathrm{t}} {{\overline{{{\mathrm{t}}}}}} {\mathrm{H}}$$ t t ¯ H , and the backgrounds is enhanced through machine-learning techniques and matrix-element methods. The measured production rates for the $${\mathrm{t}} {{\overline{{{\mathrm{t}}}}}} {\mathrm{H}}$$more »