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.

The LHCb experiment has been taking data at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN since the end of 2009. One of its key detector components is the Ring-Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) system. This provides charged particle identification over a wide momentum range, from 2–100 GeV/c. The operation and control, software, and online monitoring of the RICH system are described. The particle identification performance is presented, as measured using data from the LHC. Excellent separation of hadronic particle types (π, K, p) is achieved.

The calibration and performance of the opposite-side flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment are described. The algorithms have been developed using simulated events and optimized and calibrated with B+→J/ψK+, B0→J/ψK∗0 and B0→D∗−μ+νμ decay modes with 0.37 fb−1 of data collected in pp collisions at during the 2011 physics run. The opposite-side tagging power is determined in the B+→J/ψK+ channel to be (2.10±0.08±0.24) %, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic.

The production of J/ψ mesons in proton-proton collisions at √ s = 7 TeV is studied with the LHCb detector at the LHC. The differential cross-section for prompt J/ψ production is measured as a function of the J/ψ transverse momentum p T and rapidity y in the fiducial region p T ∈ [0; 14] GeV/c and y ∈ [2.0; 4 cross-section and fraction of J/ψ from b-hadron decays are also measured in the same p T and y ranges. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.2 pb −1 . The measured cross-sections integrated over the fiducial region are 10.52 ± 0.04 ± 1.40−2.20 µb for prompt J/ψ production and 1.14 ± 0.01 ± 0.16 µb for J/ψ from b-hadron decays, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The prompt J/ψ production cross-section is obtained assuming no J/ψ polarisation and the third error indicates the acceptance uncertainty due to this assumption.

No abstract