The NAIAD experiment for WIMP searches at Boulby mine and recent results
The NAIAD experiment (NaI Advanced Detector) for weakly interacting massive particle (WIMP) dark matter searches at Boulby mine (UK) is described. The detector consists of an array of encapsulated and unencapsulated NaI(Tl) crystals with high light yield. Six crystals are collecting data at present. Data accumulated by four of them (10.6 kg × year exposure) have been used to set upper limits on the WIMP–nucleon spin-independent and WIMP–proton spin-dependent cross-sections. Pulse shape analysis has been applied to discriminate between nuclear recoils, as may be caused by WIMP interactions, and electron recoils due to gamma background. Various calibrations of crystals are presented.

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: 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: Particle polarization in inclusive reactions

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: Observation of associated production of a Z boson with a D meson in the forward region
abstract: A bstractA search for associated production of a Z boson with an open charm meson is presented using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. Seven candidate events for associated production of a Z boson with a D0 meson and four candidate events for a Z boson with a D+ meson are observed with a combined significance of 5.1 standard deviations. The production cross-sections in the forward region are measured to be
$ \begin{array}{*{20}{c}} {{\upsigma_{{\mathrm{Z}\to {\upmu^{+}}}}}{{{_{{{\upmu^{-}}}}}}_{{,{{\mathrm{D}}^0}}}}=2.50\pm 1.12\pm } \\ {{\upsigma_{{\mathrm{Z}\to {\upmu^{+}}}}}{{{_{{{\upmu^{-}}}}}}_{{,{{\mathrm{D}}^{+}}}}}=0.44\pm 0.23\pm 0.03\ \mathrm{pb},} \\ \end{array} $
where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.

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: Observation of CP violation in B+ to DK+ decays
abstract: An analysis of B → DK and B → Dπ decays is presented where the D meson is reconstructed in the two-body final states: Kπ, KK, ππ and πK. Using 1.0 fb of LHCb data, measurements of several observables are made including the first observation of the suppressed mode B ± → [πK]DK . CP violation in B → DK decays is observed with 5.8σ significance.

title: Search for the doubly charmed baryon $$\Xi_{cc}^+$$
abstract: A search for the doubly charmed baryon \(\Xi_{cc}^+\) is performed through its decay to the \(\Lambda_c^ + {K^ -}{\pi ^ +}\) final state, using proton-proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV. The data correspond to a total integrated luminosity of 9 fb−1. No significant signal is observed in the mass range from 3.4 to 3.8 GeV/c2. Upper limits are set at 95% credibility level on the ratio of the \(\Xi_{cc}^+\) production cross-section times the branching fraction to that of \(\Lambda_c^ + \) and \(\Xi_{cc}^{+ +}\) baryons. The limits are determined as functions of the \(\Xi_{cc}^+\) mass for different lifetime hypotheses, in the rapidity range from 2.0 to 4.5 and the transverse momentum range from 4 to 15 GeV/c.

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.