The LHCb experiment is dedicated to precision measurements of CP violation and rare decays of B hadrons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva). The initial configuration and expected performance of the detector and associated systems, as established by test beam measurements and simulation studies, is described.

Hypothetical axion-like particles with a two-photon interaction would be produced in the Sun by the Primakoff process. In a laboratory magnetic field ("axion helioscope") they would be transformed into X-rays with energies of a few keV. Using a decommissioned LHC test magnet, CAST ran for about 6 months during 2003. The first results from the analysis of these data are presented here. No signal above background was observed, implying an upper limit to the axion-photon coupling gaγ < 1.16 × 10 −10 GeV −1 at 95% CL for ma < ∼ 0.02 eV. This limit, assumption-free, is comparable to the limit from stellar energy-loss arguments and considerably more restrictive than any previous experiment over a broad range of axion masses.

This paper describes the silicon microstrip modules in the barrel section of the SemiConductor Tracker (SCT) of the ATLAS experiment at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The module requirements, components and assembly techniques are given, as well as first results of the module performance on the fully-assembled barrels that make up the detector being installed in the ATLAS experiment.

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K 0 S , Λ, Ξ, Ω and negative particle yields and transverse mass spectra have been measured at central rapidity in Pb-Pb and p-Pb collisions at 158 A GeV/c. Yields are studied as a function of the number of nucleons participating in the collision N part , which is estimated with the Glauber model. From p-Pb to Pb-Pb collisions the particle yields per participant increase substantially. The enhancement is more pronounced for multistrange particles, and exceeds an order of magnitude for the Ω. For a number of participants, N part , greater than 100, however, all yields per participant appear to be constant. To be published in Physics Letters B