Measurement of the neutron flux produced by cosmic ray muons with LVD at Gran Sasso
The flux of muon-produced neutrons far away from the muon track may constitute a background for the underground detectors searching for rare events. The muon events collected by the first LVD tower from March, 1996, to February, 1998, (1.56 years of live time) were used to estimate the neutron flux at various distances from the muon track or muon-produced cascade.

title: The potential of liquid xenon for WIMP search: the ZEPLIN diagnostic array
abstract: A Liquid Xenon based WIMP detector diagnostic array is currently developed by the UKDMC with the help of international collaborators. After a brief reminder on the detection principle in Liquid Xenon, the individual detectors will be described. ZEPLIN I, a detector with a 4 kg fiducial mass with a background discrimination based on Pulse Shape Analysis, is already underground and starting operation. Two setups with improved background discrimination tools (as the ionisation is also recorded) are designed and scheduled to move underground in the second half of 2001. Both of them, ZEPLIN II and ZEPLIN III, are predicted to be sensitive to rate of 0.1–0.01 events/kg/day within 2 years of data taking. Furthermore, new ideas for lower background readout devices are studied, in order to avoid the use of PhotoMultiplier Tubes (PMTs).

title: Muon-induced background in the EDELWEISS dark matter search
abstract: A dedicated analysis of the muon-induced background in the EDELWEISS dark matter search has been performed on a data set acquired in 2009 and 2010. The total muon flux underground in the Laboratoire Souterrain de Modane (LSM) was measured to be Φ μ = ( 5.4 ± 0.2 - 0.9 + 0.5 )  muons/m 2 /d. The modular design of the μ -veto system allows the reconstruction of the muon trajectory and hence the determination of the angular dependent muon flux in LSM. The results are in good agreement with both MC simulations and earlier measurements. Synchronization of the μ -veto system with the phonon and ionization signals of the Ge detector array allowed identification of muon-induced events. Rates for all muon-induced events Γ μ = ( 0.172 ± 0.012 ) evts / ( kg d ) and of WIMP-like events Γ μ – n = 0.008 - 0.004 + 0.005 evts / ( kg d ) were extracted. After vetoing, the remaining rate of accepted muon-induced neutrons in the EDELWEISS-II dark matter search was determined to be Γ irred μ – n 6 · 10 - 4 evts / ( kg d ) at 90% C.L. Based on these results, the muon-induced background expectation for an anticipated exposure of 3000 kg d for EDELWEISS-III is N 3000 kg d μ – n 0.6 events.

title: Particle polarization in inclusive reactions

title: Progress report from the UK Dark Matter search at Boulby Mine
abstract: The UK Dark Matter Collaboration is currently running a series of scintillation devices at the Boulby mine in North Yorkshire to search for the neutralino, the hypothetical WIMP solution to the dark matter problem. Results of the current NaI(T1) detector array will be discussed, illustrating a population of events of unknown origin. Diagnostic tests performed to investigate the origin of these anomalous events will be outlined, including alpha, beta and neutron calibrations.

title: The ZEPLIN-III dark matter detector: Performance study using an end-to-end simulation tool
abstract: We present results from a GEANT4-based Monte Carlo tool for end-to-end simulations of the ZEPLIN-III dark matter experiment. ZEPLIN-III is a two-phase detector which measures both the scintillation light and the ionisation charge generated in liquid xenon by interacting particles and radiation. The software models the instrument response to radioactive backgrounds and calibration sources, including the generation, ray-tracing and detection of the primary and secondary scintillations in liquid and gaseous xenon, and subsequent processing by data acquisition electronics. A flexible user interface allows easy modification of detector parameters at run time. Realistic datasets can be produced to help with data analysis, an example of which is the position reconstruction algorithm developed from simulated data. We present a range of simulation results confirming the original design sensitivity of a few times 10−8 pb to the WIMP-nucleon cross-section.

title: First measurement of the charge asymmetry in beauty-quark pair production.
abstract: The difference in the angular distributions between beauty quarks and antiquarks, referred to as the charge asymmetry, is measured for the first time in bb pair production at a hadron collider. The data used correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb(-1) collected at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy in proton-proton collisions with the LHCb detector. The measurement is performed in three regions of the invariant mass of the bb system. The results obtained are A(C)(bb))(40 105 GeV/c(2)) = 1.6 ± 1.7 ± 0.6%, where A(C)(bb)) is defined as the asymmetry in the difference in rapidity between jets formed from the beauty quark and antiquark, where in each case the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The beauty jets are required to satisfy 2 < η < 4, E(T) >20 GeV, and have an opening angle in the transverse plane Δ ϕ > 2.6 rad. These measurements are consistent with the predictions of the standard model.

title: Observation of $B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^+$ and $B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^{*+}$ decays
abstract: The decays $B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^+$ and $B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^{*+}$ are observed for the first time using a dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3$fb^{-1}$, collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s}$=7 and 8 TeV. The statistical significance for both signals is in excess of 9 standard deviations. The following ratios of branching fractions are measured to be $BR(B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^+)/BR(B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi \pi+) = 2.90 \pm 0.57 \pm 0.24$, $BR(B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^{*+}) / BR (B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^+) = 2.37 \pm 0.56 \pm 0.10$, where the first uncertainties are statistical and the second systematic. The mass of the \Bc meson is measured to be $m_{B^+_c} = 6276.28 \pm 1.44 (stat) \pm 0.36(syst) MeV/c^2$, using the $B^+_c \rightarrow J/\psi D_s^+$ decay mode.

title: Are there any sister trajectories in the Veneziano model
abstract: The question of the existence of ''sister'' Regge trajectories in the Veneziano dual model is discussed. It is shown that the arguments of Hoyer, Toernqvist, and Webber, favoring the contribution of a ''sister'' trajectory with half the slope of the ordinary Regge trajectory to the asymptotic 6-particle Veneziano amplitude, are unfounded.

title: Search for the rare decay $D^0 \to \mu^+ \mu^-$
abstract: A search for the rare decay $D^0 \to \mu^+ \mu^-$is performed using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.9 fb$^{-1}$, of $pp$ collisions collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV by the LHCb experiment. The observed number of events is consistent with the background expectations and corresponds to an upper limit of \mbox{${\cal B}(D^0 \to \mu^+ \mu^-) < 6.2(7.6) \times 10^{-9}$} at \mbox{90%} \mbox{(95%)} confidence level. This result represents an improvement of more than a factor twenty with respect to previous measurements.

title: Search for rare $B^0_{(s)}\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-$ decays
abstract: A search for the decays $B^0_{s}\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-$ and $B^0 \rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-$ is performed using data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0\ensuremath{\{\,fb}^{-1}}\xspace, collected with the LHCb detector in 2011. The number of candidates observed is consistent with the expected background and, assuming phase-space models of the decays, limits on the branching fractions are set: \{${\ensuremath{\cal B}\xspace}(B^0_{s}\rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-) < 1.6 \ (1.2) \times 10^{-8}$} and \{${\ensuremath{\cal B}\xspace}(B^0 \rightarrow \mu^+ \mu^- \mu^+ \mu^-)< 6.6 \ (5.3) \times 10^{-9}$} at 95\,% (90\,%) confidence level. In addition, limits are set in the context of a supersymmetric model which allows for the $B^0_{(s)}$ meson to decay into a scalar ($S$) and pseudoscalar particle ($P$), where $S$ and $P$ have masses of 2.5 GeV and 214.3 MeV, respectively, both resonances decay into $\mu^+\mu^-$. The branching fraction limits for these decays are \{${\ensuremath{\cal B}\xspace}(\ensuremath{B^0_{s}\rightarrow SP}\xspace) < 1.6 \ (1.2) \times 10^{-8}$} and \{${\ensuremath{\cal B}\xspace}(\ensuremath{B^0\rightarrow SP}\xspace)< 6.3 \ (5.1) \times 10^{-9}$} at 95% (90%) confidence level.