Measurement of the polarization amplitudes and triple product asymmetries in the B-s(0) -> phi phi decay
Using 1.0 fb^{-1} of pp collision data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt{s}=7 TeV with the LHCb detector, measurements of the polarization amplitudes, strong phase difference and triple product asymmetries in the B_s^0 -> phi phi decay mode are presented. The measured values are |A_0|^2 = 0.365 +- 0.022 (stat) +- 0.012 (syst), |A_perp|^2 = 0.291 +- 0.024 (stat) +- 0.010 (syst), cos(delta_parallel) = -0.844 +- 0.068 (stat) +- 0.029 (syst), A_U = -0.055 +- 0.036 (stat) +- 0.018 (syst), A_V = 0.010 +- 0.036 (stat) +- 0.018 (syst) .

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: Observation of charmonium pairs produced exclusively in $pp$ collisions
abstract: A search is performed for the central exclusive production of pairs of charmonia produced in proton-proton collisions. Using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $3{\rm\ fb}^{-1}$ collected at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, $J/\psi J/\psi$ and $J/\psi\psi(2S)$ pairs are observed, which have been produced in the absence of any other activity inside the LHCb acceptance that is sensitive to charged particles in the pseudorapidity ranges $(-3.5,-1.5)$ and $(1.5,5.0)$. Searches are also performed for pairs of P-wave charmonia and limits are set on their production. The cross-sections for these processes, where the dimeson system has a rapidity between 2.0 and 4.5, are measured to be $$ \begin{array}{rl} \sigma^{J/\psi J/\psi} &= 58\pm10{(\rm stat)} \pm 6{(\rm syst)}  , \\ \sigma^{J/\psi\psi(2S)} &= 63 ^{+27}_{-18}{(\rm stat)}\pm 10{(\rm syst)}  , \\ \sigma^{\psi(2S)\psi(2S)} &< 237 , \\ \sigma^{\chi_{c0}\chi_{c0}} &< 69 , \\ \sigma^{\chi_{c1}\chi_{c1}} &< 45 } &< 141 , \\ \end{array} $$ where the upper limits are set at the 90% confidence level. The measured $J/\psi J/\psi$ and $J/\psi\psi(2S)$ cross-sections are consistent with theoretical expectations.

title: Search for the decay $B_s^0 \to D^{*\mp} \pi^\pm$

title: Measurement and simulation of the muon-induced neutron yield in lead
abstract: A measurement is presented of the neutron production rate in lead by high energy cosmic-ray muons at a depth of 2850 m water equivalent (w.e.) and a mean muon energy of 260 GeV. The measurement exploits the delayed coincidences between muons and the radiative capture of induced neutrons in a highly segmented tonne scale plastic scintillator detector. Detailed Mo nte Carlo simulations reproduce well the measured capture times and multiplicities and, within the dynamic range of the instrume ntation, the spectrum of energy deposits. By comparing measurements with simulations of neutron capture rates a neutron yield in lead of (5.78 +0.21 −0.28 )× 10 −3 neutrons/muon/(g/cm 2 ) has been obtained. Absolute agreement between simulation and data is of order 25%.

title: The most powerful scintillator supernovae detector: LVD
abstract: SummaryThe Large Volume Detector (LVD) in the Gran Sasso underground Laboratory is a multipurpose detector consisting of a large volume of liquid scintillator interleaved with limited streamer tubes. In this paper we discuss its power to study low-energy cosmic neutrinos. The results show that the first LVD tower (368 tons of liquid scintillator) is well suited to detect neutrinos from gravitational stellar collapses within all of our Galaxy over a wide range of burst duration (up to a few hundred seconds). No burst candidates have been observed in the first two months of data taking.

title: Muon-induced neutron production and detection with GEANT4 and FLUKA
abstract: We report on a comparison study of the Monte Carlo packages GEANT4 and FLUKA for simulating neutron production by muons penetrating deep underground. GEANT4 is found to generate fewer neutrons at muon energies above ∼ 100 GeV , by at most a factor of 2 in some materials, which we attribute mainly to lower neutron production in hadronic cascades. As a practical case study, the muon-induced neutron background expected in a 250 kg liquid-xenon WIMP dark matter detector was calculated and good agreement was found for the recoil event rates. The detailed model of neutron elastic scattering in GEANT4 was also shown to influence the nuclear recoil spectrum observed in the target, which is presently a shortcoming of FLUKA. We conclude that both packages are suited for this type of simulation, although further improvements are desirable in both cases.

title: Limits on low-energy neutrino fluxes with the Mont Blanc liquid scintillator detector
abstract: The LSD liquid scintillation detector has been operating since 1985 as an underground neutrino observatory in the Mont Blanc Laboratory with the main objective of detecting antineutrino bursts from collapsing stars. In August 1988 the construction of an additional lead and borex paraffin shield considerably reduced the radioactive background and increased the sensitivity of the apparatus. In this way the search for steady fluxes of low-energy neutrinos of different flavours through their interactions with free protons and carbon nuclei of the scintillator was made possible. No evidence for a galactic collapse was observed during the whole period of measurement. The corresponding 90% c.l. upper limit on the galactic collapses rate is 0.45 y −1 for a burst duration of ΔT ⩽ 10 s. After analysing the last 3 years data, the following 90% c.l. upper limits on the steady neutrino and antineutrino fluxes were obtained: Φ( \ gn e ) 4 \ gn e s −1 cm −2 9 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 50MeV Φ( \ gn e ) 3 \ gn e s −1 cm −2 20 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 50MeV Φ(ν e ) 3 ν e s −1 cm −2 25 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 50 MeV Φ(ν μ + τ ) 7 ν μ + τ s −1 cm −2 20 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 100 MeV Φ( \ gn μ + τ ) 7 \ gn μ + τ s −1 cm −2 20 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 100 MeV In particular comparing the obtained upper limit on the \ gn e flux for 9 ⩽ E ν ⩽ 20 MeV to the solar ν e flux predicted by the standard solar model in the same range of energy, we can exclude the possibility that more than 6.3% of the solar ν e 's flux can change to \ gn e . Finally the first limits on the flux of relic supernova neutrinos of all flavours as a function of the neutrino sea temperature are presented.

title: Measurements and simulations of muon-induced neutrons
abstract: The first measurements of the muon-induced neutron flux at the Boulby Underground Laboratory are presented. The experiment was carried out with an 0.73 tonne liquid scintillation detector that also served as an anticoincidence system for the ZEPLIN-II direct dark matter search. The experimental method exploited the delayed coincidences between high-energy muon signals and gamma-rays from radiative neutron capture on hydrogen or other elements. The muon-induced neutron rate, defined as the average number of detected neutr ons per detected muon, was measured as 0.079± 0.003 (stat.) neutrons/muon using neutron-capture signals above 0.55 MeV in a time window of 40-190 μs after the muon trigger. Accurate Monte Carlo simulations of the neutron production, transport and detection in a precisely modeled laboratory and experimental setup using the GEANT4 toolkit gave a result 1.8 times higher than the measured value. The difference greatly exceeds all statistical and systematic uncertainties. As the vast majority of neutrons detected in the current setup were produced in lead we evaluated from our measurements the neutron yield in lead as (1.31± 0.06)× 10 3 neutrons/muon/(g/cm 2 ) for a mean muon energy of about 260 GeV.