Flavour physics

Read article 'Charmed baryons strike back'

Charmed baryons strike back

Last year, the LHCb collaboration announced the first observation of the Ξcc++ baryon, a doubly charmed particle (CERN Courier July/August 2017 p8). It was identified via the decay Ξcc++ → Λc...

Read article 'SuperKEKB steps out at the intensity frontier'

SuperKEKB steps out at the intensity frontier

On 26 April the SuperKEKB accelerator at the KEK laboratory in Japan collided its first beams of electrons and positrons, marking the start of an ambitious data-taking campaign that will allow ultrapr...

Read article 'Central exclusive production at LHCb'

Central exclusive production at LHCb

Four years ago, LHCb measured the central exclusive production (CEP) of J/ψ and ψ(2S) mesons at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV (CERN Courier March 2014 p7). In CEP, two incoming protons emerge i...

Read article 'First hints of ultra-rare kaon decay'

First hints of ultra-rare kaon decay

The NA62 collaboration at CERN has found a candidate event for the ultra-rare decay K+ → π+ ν ν, demonstrating the experiment’s potential to test heavily-suppressed corners of the Stand...

Read article 'Charm oscillations precisely measured by LHCb'

Charm oscillations precisely measured by LHCb

Direct searches for particles beyond the Standard Model (SM) have so far come up empty handed, but perhaps physicists can get luckier with indirect searches. Quantum mechanics allows neutral flavoured...