SciPost Phys. Proc. 16, 021 (2025) ·
published 15 July 2025
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The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics represents our most fundamental knowledge of elementary particles and their interactions. One of the cardinal properties of the SM which has been thoroughly studied during the past years is the so-called Lepton Flavour Universality (LFU): W and Z bosons are predicted to be equally coupled to the three lepton generations. Hints for deviations from LFU have been found by the LHCb collaboration in $b\to s\ell\ell$ and $b\to c\ell\nu$ decays, sparking great interest and further motivating the searches for lepton flavour violating processes. A general review of these results is presented, including prospects in view of the LHC and LHCb upgrade.
SciPost Phys. 18, 071 (2025) ·
published 26 February 2025
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Measurements are presented of the cross-section for the central exclusive production of $J/\psi\to\mu^+\mu^-$ and $\psi(2S)\to\mu^+\mu^-$ processes in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13 \ \mathrm{TeV}$ with 2016–2018 data. They are performed by requiring both muons to be in the LHCb acceptance (with pseudorapidity $2<\eta_{\mu^{±}} < 4.5$) and mesons in the rapidity range $2.0 < y < 4.5$. The integrated cross-section results are \begin{align*} \sigma_{J/\psi\to\mu^+\mu^-}(2.0<y_{J/\psi}<4.5,2.0<\eta_{\mu^{±}} < 4.5) &= 400 ± 2 ± 5 ± 12 \ \mathrm{pb}\,,\\ \sigma_{\psi(2S)\to\mu^+\mu^-}(2.0<y_{\psi(2S)}<4.5,2.0<\eta_{\mu^{±}} < 4.5) &= 9.40 ± 0.15 ± 0.13 ± 0.27 \ \mathrm{pb}\,, \end{align*} where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic and due to the luminosity determination. In addition, a measurement of the ratio of $\psi(2S)$ and $J/\psi$ cross-sections, at an average photon-proton centre-of-mass energy of $1\ \mathrm{TeV}$, is performed, giving \begin{equation*} \frac{\sigma_{\psi(2S)}}{\sigma_{J/\psi}} = 0.1763 ± 0.0029 ± 0.0008 ± 0.0039 \,, \end{equation*} where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third due to the knowledge of the involved branching fractions. For the first time, the dependence of the $J/\psi$ and $\psi(2S)$ cross-sections on the total transverse momentum transfer is determined in $pp$ collisions and is found consistent with the behaviour observed in electron-proton collisions.
