Current Status of the DRIFT Project and UKDMC Dark Matter Search
Three new projects are being prepared to run in the Boulby Mine Dark Matter Facility within the next year. The first of these, NAIAD, is an array of NaI scintillation crystals with 50 kg of total target mass. Second, the ZEPLIN project, in its first incarnation, is a 4 kg single phase liquid Xenon detector. Finally, the DRIFT project is a low-pressure gas chamber designed to be sensitive to the directions of WIMP-induced nuclear recoils as well as their energies. In this paper we will mainly discuss the DRIFT experiment, and short reports on the status of ZEPLIN and NAIAD will be given at the end.

title: Particle polarization in inclusive reactions

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: 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: 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: 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: First observation of the decays $\bar{B}^0_{(s)}\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\bar{B}^0_s\to D_{s1}(2536)^+\pi^-$
abstract: The first observation of the decays $\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\bar{B}^0\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$ are reported using an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the LHCb experiment. The branching fractions, normalized with respect to $\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$, respectively, are measured to be {\br(\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)\over\br(\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-)} &= (5.2\pm0.5\pm0.3)\times10^{-2}, {\br(\bar{B}^0\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-)\over\br(\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+K^-^\pi^+\pi^-)} &= 0.54\pm0.07\pm0.07, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The $\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-$ decay is of particular interest as it can be used to measure the weak phase $\gamma$. First observation of the $\bar{B}^0_s\to D_{s1}(2536)^+\pi^-, D_{s1}^+\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+$ decay is also presented, and its branching fraction relative to $\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ is found to be {\br(\bar{B}^0_s\to D_{s1}(2536)^+\pi^-, D_{s1}^+\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+)\over\br(\bar{B}^0_{s}\to D_s^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-)} &= (4.0\pm1.0\pm0.4)\times10^{-3}.

title: Evidence for the decay $B^0\to J/\psi \omega$ and measurement of the relative branching fractions of $B^0_s$ meson decays to $J/\psi\eta$ and $J/\psi\eta^{'}$
abstract: First evidence of the $B^0\to J/\psi\omega$ decay is found and the $B_{s}^0\to J/\psi\eta$ and $B_{s}^0\to J/\psi\eta^{\prime}$ decays are studied using a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 $\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ collected by the LHCb experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The branching fractions of these decays are measured relative to that of the $\mathrm{B}^0\to J/\psi\rho^0$ decay: $$\frac{Br(B^0\to J/\psi\omega)}{Br(B^0\to J/\psi\rho^0)} = 0.89 \pm0.19(stat)^{+0.07}_{-0.13}(syst)$$ $$\frac{Br(B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta)}{Br(B^0\to J/\psi\rho^0)} = 14.0 \pm 1.2(stat)^{+1.1}_{-1.5}(syst)^{+1.1}_{-1.0}(\frac{f_d}{f_s}),$$ $$\frac{Br(B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta^{\prime})}{Br(B^0\to J/\psi\rho^0)} = 12.7\pm1.1(stat)^{+0.5}_{-1.3}(syst)^{+1.0}_{-0.9}(\frac{f_d}{f_s}),$$ where the last uncertainty is due to the knowledge of $f_d/f_s$, the ratio of b-quark hadronization factors that accounts for the different production rate of $B^0$ and $B^0_s$ mesons. The ratio of the branching fractions of $B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta^{\prime}$ and $B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta$ decays is measured to be $$ \frac{Br(B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta^{\prime})}{Br(B^0_s\to J/\psi\eta)} = 0.90\pm0.09(stat)^{+0.06}_{-0.02}(syst).$$

title: Implications of LHCb measurements and future prospects
abstract: During 2011 the LHCb experiment at CERN collected 1.0 fb−1 of $\sqrt{s} = 7\mbox{~TeV}$pp collisions. Due to the large heavy quark production cross-sections, these data provide unprecedented samples of heavy flavoured hadrons. The first results from LHCb have made a significant impact on the flavour physics landscape and have definitively proved the concept of a dedicated experiment in the forward region at a hadron collider. This document discusses the implications of these first measurements on classes of extensions to the Standard Model, bearing in mind the interplay with the results of searches for on-shell production of new particles at ATLAS and CMS. The physics potential of an upgrade to the LHCb detector, which would allow an order of magnitude more data to be collected, is emphasised.

title: Heavy states of hadron string as weak interacting massive particles for Dark Matter
abstract: Massive states (of order 10 Gev and more) of hadron string (with scale 1 Gev) can have very small coupling constants with usual baryons of the Universe. Corresponding mean times for them are found to be order and even more than the age of the Universe. They are proposed as possible candidates for weak interacting massive particles (WIMP) of Dark Matter.

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.