LHCb - from strangeness to b hadron physics and beyond

 

Financing source (agency):    Institute for Atomic Physics (IFA)

Project code:    PN-II, Module III: Capacităţi, LHCb; contract no. 3/03.01.2012

Current project director:    Dr. Florin MACIUC (since May 1, 2013)

Former project director:    Dr. Raluca Anca MUREŞAN (until May 1, 2013)

Institution:    "Horia Hulubei" National Research Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH), 30 Reactorului, P.O. B. MG-6, RO-077125, Bucharest-Măgurele, Romania, EU

E-mail: florin {dot} maciuc [at] cern < dot > ch

Research Team: see TEAM menu entry for a detailed overview of present and former members of the group.

Abstract

    The main objective of this project is to provide a continuous support for the Romanian scientific involvement in the LHCb international collaboration at CERN, thus ensuring a successful attendance to experimental data acquisition and a fruitful contribution to physics analyses which will be published in prestigious peer-reviewed scientific journals. The physics studies started by the previous project will be continued aiming to bring contributions to soft-QCD and $b$-quark physics. Besides, as full members of the LHCb Collaboration, it is the group's responsibility to take part in: activities for maintenance and improvement of the detector, exploratory studies for its upgrade, data acquisition and processing activities, various services tasks which ensure an efficient operation of the detector and management of recorded data. The present project also sustains the fulfillment of the national responsibilities in LHCb for development and maintenance of the distributed computing resources (GRID). The main topics which our group intends to tackle in the frame of the present project could the summarized in the followings:

1. Physics Topics:
   1. Strange particle production studies - cross-sections and cross-section ratios, tuning and validation of Monte Carlo (MC) event generators.
   2. $b$ baryon production studies.
   3. Radiative decay studies for $B$ mesons. Preparation of similar studies for $b$ baryons.
2. Service Tasks
   1. Monte Carlo simulation software development for LHCb framework.
   2. Maintenance of the ShiftDB tool web application.
   3. Software contributions to the DIRAC project. Maintenance, update and upgrade of hardware and software performance for the GRID resources falling under the group's responsibility.
3. Data acquisition, validation and quality control, and data processing - members of the group will enroll for shifts at the LHCb control center in order to monitor experimental data acquisition, verify recorded data quality (DQ) and oversee preliminary data processing in preparation of physics studies (production). Also we'll provide human resources for detector testing during the LHC shutdown periods.
4. LHCb Upgrade - our group will actively involve in detector upgrade activities trying to identify possible Romanian partners for production of hardware and/or software dedicated to improving the LHCb detector sub-systems according to publicly available Technical Design Reports.

The recent (2011-2012) restructuring of our group yielded a young and dynamic team. In the following years we intend to strengthen this working group by attracting PhD researchers, offering the PhD students opportunities to keep working as members of the group after graduating and recruiting new, future PhD students. The goal is to establish a coherent research and development team which would bring visible and useful contributions to the LHCb activities and involve in future high energy physics experiments. The visibility of the LHCb-Ro group within the scientific community will be ensured as its members will attend international conferences presenting the collaboration results in talks and during poster sessions. Our groups envisages the possibility of contributing to the formation of a new generation of physicists by proposing training projects for students attending the CERN summer schools, Master diploma projects and getting involved into outreach activities.

The above text was adapted and translated from contract LHCb 3/03.01.2012, section 3: "Obiectivele proiectului" (in Romanian only).

Project Stages

Quick links

• Stage I (2012)
• Stage II (2013)
• Stage III (2014)
• Stage IV (2015)
• Final Report

Stage I (2012):

• Activities:
  
  I.1 Strangeness production, cross-sections, cross-section ratios, MC event generator tuning and validation:
  a) Study of $V^0$ particle production ratios at 2.76 TeV
  b) Production cross-section studies for $V^0$ particles at the following three $pp$ interaction energies 2.76, 7, 8 TeV
  I.2 $b$ baryons production studies. Finalizing the measurement of $\sigma (pp \to \Lambda_b X) \times \mathcal{Β} ( \Lambda_b \to J/\psi \Lambda)$. Preliminary studies for double differential cross-section measurement.
  I.3 Radiative decay studies. Final results on the branching factor ratio for the radiative decays $B_d \to K^{*0} \gamma$ and $B_s \to \phi \gamma$.
  I.4 Service Tasks according to MoU.
  I.5 LHCb Shifts.
  I.6 R&D Activities for LHCb Collaboration.
• Conferences, workshops and talks
• Scientific results:

Stage II (2013):

• Activities
  
  II.1 Strangeness production, cross-sections, cross-section ratios, MC event generator tuning and validation. Production cross-section studies for $V^0$ particles at the interaction energies of 2.76, 7, 8 TeV. Study of the anti-baryon to baryon ratios for multi-strange particles, e.g., $\Xi^{\pm}$ and $\Omega^{\pm}$.
  II.2 $b$ baryon production studies. Measurement of double differential cross-section.
  II.3 Radiative decay studies. Measurement of photon polarization in the decay $B_s \to \phi \gamma$.
  II.4 Service Tasks according to MoU.
  II.5 LHCb Shifts.
  II.6 R&D Activities for LHCb Collaboration.
• Conferences, workshops and talks
• Scientific results:

Stage III (2014):

• Activities
  
  III.1 Strangeness production, cross-sections, cross-section ratios, MC event generator tuning and validation. Physics interpretation of strangeness measurements.c Production ratios for baryons containing more $s$ quarks.
  III.2 $b$ baryon production studies. Feasibility studies for measurements of the $\Lambda_b$ baryon polarization and production cross-sections for heavier baryons.
  III.3 Radiative decay studies. Feasibility studies for measurement of photon polarization in $b$ baryon radiative decays.
  III.4 Service Tasks according to MoU.
  III.5 LHCb Shifts.
  III.6 R&D Activities for LHCb Collaboration.
• Conferences, workshops and talks
• Scientific results:

Stage IV (2015):

• Activities
  
  IV.1 Continuing strangeness production studies using Minimum Bias data from proton-proton collisions at 2.76, 7 and 8 TeV. Preparation and publication of results.
  IV.2 Continuing strangeness production studies using Minimum Bias data from ion-proton collisions at nucleon-nucleon interaction energy of 5 TeV.
  IV.3 Strangeness production studies, e.g. $V^0$ production in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV.
  IV.4 Studies for tuning the Pythia8 event generator using the LHCb specific configuration and measurements on data registered at LHC collision energies. LHCb measurements in the "forward" rapidity region will be emphasized.
  IV.5 Radiative decays and production cross-section measurements for the "beauty" baryon $\Lambda_{b}^{0}$.
  IV.6 Service Tasks according to MoU - RO-11 Grid Tier 2 site.
  IV.7 Introductory outreach activities for high energy and elementary particle physics popularization at college and university levels (junior students). This program applies also to high-school teachers.
  IV.8 R&D activities for the LHCb Upgrade program dedicated to LHCb RICH detectors, beam tests, qualification of technologies and components for the upgraded LHCb detector in the radiation, temperature and magnetic field conditions present at LHC.
  IV.9 Construction activities for the upgraded LHCb detector according to the document "Addendum No. 02 to the Memorandum of Understanding for Collaboration in the Construction of the LHCb Detector – The Upgrade of the LHCb Detector: Sub-Detector Systems".
• Conferences, workshops and talks
• Scientific results:

Final Report
Summary of "LHCb from strangeness to b-physics and beyond" project results and activities, new developments in High Energy Physics and R&D, national-level impact and integration within LHCb Collaboration -- PDF

Final Report: Annex 2 - "Final Project Indicators" (according to G.D. 475/2007) -- PDF (in Romanian only)