LHCb

The University of Warwick joined the LHCb collaboration in November 2008. We receive, or have received, funding from a number of external sources including:

A list of all the publications we have worked on is available under Physics Analysis.

Latest news

10 April 2025: "Angular analysis of the decay B0s→ϕe+e−" available as arXiv:2504.06346
6 April 2025: Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics awarded to the ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb collaborations. See the CERN press release, LHCb public page and Warwick press release.
25 March 2025: Discovery of CP violation in baryon decays by LHCb. See the LHCb web page, CERN press release, and preprint.
18 March 2025: "Measurement of the Z boson mass with the LHCb detector" CERN seminar presented by Emir Muhammad
7 January 2025: Anja Beck awarded LHCb UK PhD Prize
26 November 2024: "Study of Λ0b and Ξ0b decays to Λh+h′− and evidence for CP violation in Λ0b→ΛK+K− decays" available as arXiv:2411.15441. Update 12 March 2025: published as PRL 134 (2025) 101802
7 November 2024: "Study of Ds1(2460)+→D+sπ+π− in B→D(*)barD+sπ+π− decays" available as arXiv:2411.03399. Update 15 May 2025: published as Sci. Bull. 70 (2025) 1432
22 October 2024: Laura++ v3r6 released
18 October 2024: "Test of lepton flavour universality with B0s→φℓ+ℓ− decays" available as arXiv:2410.13748. Update 27 March 2025: published as PRL 134 (2025) 121803
4 October 2024: "Measurement of the effective leptonic weak mixing angle" available as arXiv:2410.02502. Update 3 December 2024: published as JHEP 12 (2024) 026
27 September 2024: "Search for B*0(s)→μ+μ− in B+c→π+μ+μ− decays" available as arXiv:2409.17209. Update 13 January 2025: published as EPJ C85 (2025) 20
20 September 2024: "Analysis of Λ0b→pK−μ+μ− decays" available as arXiv:2409.12629. Update 19 December 2024: published as JHEP 12 (2024) 147
21 July 2024: We are distraught by news of the tragic death of our former colleague and PhD student Arnau Brossa Gonzalo. Our deepest condolences and sympathies to his family. Update 21 August 2024: Obituary published in CERN bulletin. Update 29 October 2024: Dedication to Arnau included in LHCb-PAPER-2024-023. Update 11 November 2024: Obituary published in CERN Courier
11 June 2024: Congratulations to Menglin Xu and Emir Muhammed, who have been awarded the LHCb Early Career Award with citation: "For an outstanding contribution to Simulation. These include contributions to the detector project to allow all 5 versions of the LHCb detector to be supported together. This is crucial progress towards using the DD4Hep detector description in simulation and for Upgrade 2 studies."
6 June 2024: "Observation of new charmonium(-like) states in B+→D*±D∓K+ decays" available as arXiv:2406.03156. Update 27 September 2024: published as PRL 133 (2024) 131902
23 May 2024: We are advertising for a Research Fellow to work on TORCH development and physics data analysis. Deadline Thursday 20 June 2024 at 23:45 BST
22 May 2024: "Study of b-hadron decays to Λ+ch−h′− final states" available as arXiv:2405.12688. Update 19 August 2024: published as JHEP 08 (2024) 132
2 May 2024: "Amplitude analysis and branching fraction measurement of B+→D*−D+sπ+ decays" available as arXiv:2405.00098. Update 21 August 2024: published as JHEP 08 (2024) 165
23 April 2024: "The LHCb VELO Upgrade Module Construction" available as arXiv:2404.13615. Update 17 June 2024: published as JINST 19 (2024) P06023
11 March 2024: "Reappraisal of SU(3)-flavor breaking in B→DP" available as arXiv:2403.04878. Update 24 June 2024: published as PR D109 (2024) 113006.
7 March 2024:" Amplitude analysis of the Λ0b→pK−γ decay" available as arXiv:2403.03710. Update 21 June 2024: published as JHEP 06 (2024) 098.
25 January 2024: "Visualisation of CP-violation effects in decay-time-dependent analyses of multibody B-meson decays" available as arXiv:2401.13473. Update 28 March 2024: published as EPJ C84 (2024) 327.
20 December 2023: "Search for B+c→π+μ+μ− decays and measurement of the branching fraction ratio B(B+c→ψ(2S)π+)/B(B+c→J/ψπ+)" available as arXiv:2312.12228. Update 7 May 2024: published as EPJ C84 (2024) 468
9 November 2023: "Charge-dependent curvature-bias corrections using a pseudomass method" available as arXiv:2311.04670. Update 12 March 2024 published as JINST 19 (2024) P03010
19 September 2023: "Testable Likelihoods for Beyond-the-Standard Model Fits" available as arXiv:2309.10365. Update 8 December 2023: published as EPJ C83 (2023) 1115
25 August 2023: "Measurement of Z boson production cross-section in pp collisions at √s=5.02TeV" available as arXiv:2308.12940. Update 21 February 2024 published as JHEP 02 (2024) 070
22 August 2023: "Study of Ξ_b⁻ and Ω_b⁻ decays to Λ_c⁺ h⁻h'⁻ final states" available as LHCb-CONF-2023-001
21 August 2023: "Compatibility and combination of world W-boson mass measurements" available as arXiv:2308.09417. Update 2 May 2024: published as EPJ C 84 (2024) 451
12 July 2023: Case study of Riley Henderson as a MWAPP Joint PhD student available. Direct link to YouTube video.
19 May 2023: "The LHCb Upgrade I" available as arXiv:2305.10515. Update 23 May 2024: published as JINST 19 (2024) P05065

The Group

People

Tim Gershon (Professor)
Tom Blake (Associate Professor)
Michal Kreps (Reader)
Mika Vesterinen (Associate Professor)
Nicole Skidmore (Assistant Professor)
John Back (Senior Research Fellow)
Tom Latham (Senior Research Fellow)
Fernando Abudinén (Research Fellow)
Miguel Ramos Pernas (Research Fellow)
Marion Lehuraux (Research Fellow)
Ross Hunter (Research Fellow)
Valeriia Zhovkovska (Research Fellow)
Raul Rabadan (Research Fellow)
Ahmed Abdelmotteleb (Research Fellow)
Alex Ward (Ph.D. student)
Matthew Monk (Ph.D. student)
Lorenzo Paolucci (Ph.D. student)
Emir Muhammad (Ph.D. student)
Alex Davidson (Ph.D. student)
Luke Grazette (Ph.D. student)
George Hallett (Ph.D. student)
James Connaughton (Ph.D. student)
Alex Doheny (Ph.D. student)
Miles Armour (M.Res. student)

Activities

VELO including upgrades
Simulation including EvtGen
Event display
Trigger, data stripping and real time analysis
Data processing & analysis
Physics analysis
TORCH

VELO

We are members of the VErtex LOcator subdetector group. We are involved in the upgrade of the VELO subdetector, and planning for future upgrades to cope with ever higher data rates.

Simulation

We are responsible for the EvtGen Monte Carlo generator within the experiment.

Trigger, data stripping and real time analysis

We are involved with the HLT2 (high-level trigger), data stripping and real time analysis activity.

TORCH

We are members of the TORCH collaboration, carrying out R&D for a novel time-of-flight detector that could provide particle identification information, to discriminate between charged pions, kaons and protons at low momentum.

Physics Analysis (more information here)

We have leading roles in the collaboration in measurements related to the angle γ (gamma) of the so-called Unitarity Triangle and of rare b hadron decays mediated by the b→sμ⁺μ⁻ transition. We also have interests in several other areas, particularly in analyses involving Dalitz plot analysis.

Openings

Information on job openings and Ph.D. positions in the Warwick EPP group can be found here. Please feel free to contact us (T dot J dot Gershon at warwick dot ac dot uk) for more information or to discuss possibilities.

Theses and Alumni

Paul Harrison (moved to ATLAS)
Mark Whitehead CERN-THESIS-2012-130 "Observation of the decay B0→D0K+K− with the LHCb detector at CERN", moved to a CERN fellowship
Matt Williams CERN-THESIS-2013-351 "Search for a wrong-flavour contribution to Bs→Dsπ decays and study of CP violation in Bs→DsK decays", moved to University of Birmingham
David Dossett CERN-THESIS-2013-299 "Measurement of the B0d,s→K∗±h∓ decay branching fractions at the LHCb experiment", moved to University of Melbourne
Matt Reid CERN-THESIS-2014-125 "Branching fraction measurements of B0(s)→J/ψK0Sh+h(′)− decays", took a job in the financial sector
Tomas Pilar CERN-THESIS-2014-302 "Measurement of the neutral D meson mixing parameters in D0→KSπ+π− decays", took a job in software
Rafael Silva Coutinho CERN-THESIS-2015-117 "Studies of charmless three-body b-hadron decays at LHCb", moved to University of Zurich, Switzerland
Daniel Craik CERN-THESIS-2015-285 "A measurement of the CKM angle γ from studies of B→DKπ Dalitz plots", moved to University of Edinburgh
Christoph Langenbruch (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow at Warwick) moved to take up Emmy Noether fellowship at RWTH Aachen University, Germany
Charlotte Wallace CERN-THESIS-2016-064 "Studies of excited D mesons in B meson decays", moved to University of Bristol and then to a civil service job
Ronnie Rera CERN-THESIS-2017-018 "Search for the decay B+→D*−K+π+", went into officer training with the US Air Force
Chris Everett CERN-THESIS-2016-322 "An angular analysis of Λ_b→Λμ⁺μ⁻ decays at the LHCb experiment", moved to nuclear physics group at University of Liverpool
Jean Wicht (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow) returned to Switzerland and took a job in software
Daniel O'Hanlon CERN-THESIS-2017-184 "Studies of CP-violation in charmless three-body b-hadron decays", moved to Universita Bologna, Italy with an INFN fellowship
Wenbin Qian (Marie Sklodowska-Curie Fellow) moved to take up an academic position at UCAS, China
Anton Poluektov (Postdoctoral research fellow) moved to take up an academic position at CPPM, Marseille
David Loh (Ph.D. student), left academic research
Abhijit Mathad CERN-THESIS-2018-237 "Search for CP violation in charmless three-body decays of strange-beauty baryons", moved to University of Zurich, Switzerland
Andrew Crocombe CERN-THESIS-2018-360 "Studies of rare $B \to K π μ μ$ decays using the LHCb experiment", took a job in software
Cayo Costa Sobral CERN-THESIS-2019-246 "Measurement of the relative branching fractions of charmless three-body B⁺ decays at LHCb", took a job in software
Olli Lupton (Postdoctoral research fellow) moved to EPFL, working for the Blue Brain project
Edward Millard CERN-THESIS-2020-306 "Studies of the rare decays B⁰ (B_s⁰) → π⁺π⁻μ⁺μ⁻ with the LHCb experiment"
Niladri Sahoo (Postdoctoral research fellow) moved to University of Birmingham
Arnau Brossa Gonzalo CERN-THESIS-2022-007 "First observation of $B^{0} \to {\bar{D}}^{*} (2007)^{0} K^{+} π^{-}$ K⁺π⁻ and $B_{s}^{0} \to {\bar{D}}^{*} (2007)^{0} K^{-} π^{+}$ _s→Dbar*(2007) $B^{0} \to {\bar{D}}^{*} (2007)^{0} K^{+} π^{-}$ K⁻π⁺ decays in LHCb", moved to Santiago de Compostela
Flavia Cicala CERN-THESIS-2022-350 "Measurement of the angular distribution of the B⁺ → π⁺μ⁻μ⁺ decay and R&D towards a future upgrade of the particle identification system of the LHCb experiment", moved to a PDRA position on neutrino experiments at UCL
Ross Hunter CERN-THESIS-2022-327 "Precise measurements of the W boson’s mass and lepton flavour universality, and trigger development with the LHCb experiment at CERN", remaining as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Warwick LHCb group
Andy Morris, CERN-THESIS-2022-367 "Time dependent CP asymmetries in B⁰ → D_CP π⁺π⁻ decays at LHCb", moved to CPPM Marseille
Luis Miguel Garcia Martin (Postdoctoral research fellow), moved to EPFL
Matt Kenzie (Associate Professor), moved to the University of Cambridge
Bhagyashree Pagare, CERN-THESIS-2023-328 "Search for the decays $Ξ_{b}^{-} (Ω_{b}^{-}) \to Λ_{c}^{+} h^{-} h^{' -}$ where $h$ , $h^{'}$ are $K$ or $π$ at LHCb", moved to Santiago de Compostela
Tom Jones, CERN-THESIS-2023-412 "Differential branching fraction analysis of the rare decay Λ0b→pK−μ+μ− and R&D for the future particle identification system of the LHCb experiment", moved to a PDRA position on neutrino experiments at Lancaster
Vedanshu Mahajan, CERN-THESIS-2023-410 "The search for B⁺_c→π⁺μ⁺μ⁻ and updating the measurement B(B⁺_c→ψ(2S)π⁺)/B(B⁺_c→J/ψπ⁺) with the LHCb experiment", moved to study for a PhD at the University of Bristol
Anja Beck, CERN-THESIS-2024-168 "Studying penguins in the hadronic jungle with the LHCb experiment", took a PDRA position at MIT
Aidan Wiederhold, CERN-THESIS-2024-241 "The ﬁrst double Dalitz plane analysis of B0→DK+π− decays at LHCb", moved to a PDRA position in the LHCb group at the University of Manchester
Ahmed Abdelmotteleb, remaining as a postdoctoral research fellow in the Warwick LHCb group
Menglin Xu, took up a position as a CERN research fellow

Completed grants

Advanced Techniques to Search for Physics Beyond the Standard Model with the LHCb Detector at CERN, funded through an ERC Starting Investigator grant (ERC-2009-StG; link to Warwick page)
Exploring New Phenomena through Flavour Changing Neutral Currents with LHCb, funded through a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Intra-European Fellowship under FP7 (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IEF; link to Warwick page)
Understanding Matter-Antimatter Asymmetries in B Meson Decays to Three Particles, funded through a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship under Horizon 2020 (H2020-MSCA-IF-2014)