CP violation is a well-established phenomenon in particle physics, but until 2001 it was only observed in kaons. In the last decade, several matter-antimatter asymmetries have been observed in neutral B mesons in line with the expectations of the Standard Model of the weak interaction. Direct CP violation is also expected in the decay rates of charged B+ mesons versus that of B- mesons, though the greatest effects are present in a decay that occurs just twice in 10 million decays. Such rarity requires huge samples to study and this is exactly what the LHC, and its dedicated B-physics experiment LHCb provide. This thesis presents an analysis of the first two years of LHCb data. The author describes the first observation of the rare decay, B- → DK-, D → π-K+ and the first observation of direct CP violation in this B decay. The work constitutes essential information on the experiment’s measurement of a fundamental parameter of the theory and stands as a benchmark against which subsequent analyses of this type will be compared.

This volume reviews the recent progress of B physics, and discusses theoretical and experimental aspects of the physics which will be explored at the B factory. CP violation and new physics beyond the Standard Model are the main issues of the discussion.

This book presents the latest results on the branching fraction and phase space distribution of B0 and Bs0 decays into final states including excited neutral charm mesons. This work represents four years of research, and the book describes in detail all the necessary steps and techniques required to perform a physics analysis of the data recorded by the LHCb experiment in the years 2016–2018. Although the results presented in this book represent the first measurement of such decays, the text is written in a manner accessible to Ph.D. students and early career researchers. Thus, all the contents included in this book are described in a pedagogical way, including technical details that would allow the results to be reproduced in future. In addition to the methodology used to perform these measurements, the book also includes a description of the theoretical background required to interpret the results presented, as well as a technical description of the LHCb detector, which provided the data sample used in this study.

Neutrino 94

This book covers a very broad spectrum of experimental and theoretical activity in particle physics, from the searches for the Higgs boson and physics beyond the Standard Model, to detailed studies of Quantum Chromodynamics, the B-physics sectors and the properties of hadronic matter at high energy density as realised in heavy-ion collisions. Starting with a basic introduction to the Standard Model and its most likely extensions, the opening section of the book presents an overview of the theoretical and phenomenological framework of hadron collisions and current theoretical models of frontier physics. In part II, discussion of the theory is supplemented by chapters on the detector capabilities and search strategies, as well as an overview of the main detector components, the initial calibration procedures and physics samples and early LHC results. Part III completes the volume with a description of the physics behind Monte Carlo event generators and a broad introduction to the main statistical methods used in high energy physics. LHC Phenomenology covers all of these topics at a pedagogical level, with the aim of providing young particle physicists with the basic tools required for future work on the various LHC experiments. It will also serve as a useful reference text for those working in the field.