SND@LHC is a compact experiment that will detect high energy neutrinos produced by heavy flavour quarks at the LHC in the pseudo-rapidity region 7.2 $< \eta <$ 8.6. It is an hybrid system, comprising nuclear emulsions and electronic detectors, that allows all three $\nu$ flavours to be distinguished, thus opening an unique opportunity to probe the physics of charm production in the very forward region. The first phase aims at operating the detector throughout LHC Run 3 collecting a total of 150 fb$^{-1}$. The electronic subdetectors were assembled in the summer and recently operated in test beams.

After rapid approval and installation, the SND@LHC Collaboration was able to gather data successfully in 2022 and 2023. Neutrino interactions from νμs originating at the LHC IP1 were observed. Since muons constitute the major background for neutrino interactions, the muon flux entering the acceptance was also measured. To improve the rejection power of the detector and to increase the fiducial volume, a third Veto plane was recently installed. The energy resolution of the calorimeter system was measured in a test beam. This will help with the identification of νe interactions that can be used to probe charm production in the pseudo-rapidity range of SND@LHC (7.2 < η < 8.4). Events with three outgoing muons have been observed and are being studied. With no vertex in the target, these events are very likely from muon trident production in the rock before the detector. Events with a vertex in the detector could be from trident production, photon conversion, or positron annihilation. To enhance SND@LHC’s physics case, an upgrade is planned for HL-LHC that will increase the statistics and reduce the systematics. The installation of a magnet will allow the separation of νμ from ν¯μ

The Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC (\SND) started taking data at the beginning of Run 3 of the LHC. The experiment is designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced in proton-proton collisions at the LHC in an energy range between 100GeV and 1 TeV. It covers a previously unexplored pseudo-rapidity range of $7.2<\eta<8.4$. The detector is located 480 m downstream of the ATLAS interaction point in the TI18 tunnel. It comprises a veto system, a target consisting of tungsten plates interleaved with nuclear emulsion and scintillating fiber (SciFi) trackers, followed by a muon detector (UpStream, US and DownStream, DS). In this article we report the measurement of the muon flux in three subdetectors: the emulsion, the SciFi trackers and the DownStream Muon detector. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through an 18$\times$18 cm$^{2}$ area in the emulsion is $1.5 \pm 0.1(\textrm{stat}) \times 10^4\,\textrm{fb/cm}^{2}$. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 31$\times$31 cm$^{2}$ area in the centre of the SciFi is $2.06\pm0.01(\textrm{stat})\pm0.12(\textrm{sys}) \times 10^{4} \textrm{fb/cm}^{2}$. The muon flux per integrated luminosity through a 52$\times$52 cm$^{2}$ area in the centre of the downstream muon system is $2.35\pm0.01(\textrm{stat})\pm0.10(\textrm{sys}) \times 10^{4}\,\textrm{fb/cm}^{2}$. The total relative uncertainty of the measurements by the electronic detectors is 6 $\%$ for the SciFi and 4 $\%$ for the DS measurement. The Monte Carlo simulation prediction of these fluxes is 20-25 $\%$ lower than the measured values.

SND@LHC, Scattering and Neutrino Detector at the LHC, is a compact experiment designed to perform measurements with neutrinos produced at the LHC in the unexplored pseudo-rapidity region of 7.2 < \eta η < 8.4, complementary to all the other experiments at the LHC. The experiment was approved in March 2021. It was constructed in about one year and it is now taking data during the Run 3 of the LHC. In this paper we review the detector concept, the physics case and the status of the data taking.

The CMS detector, including its muon system, has been operating at the CERN LHC in increasingly challenging conditions for about 15 years. The muon detector was designed to provide excellent triggering and track reconstruction for muons produced in proton–proton collisons at an instantaneous luminosity ( ℒ ) of 1 × 10^34 cm ^-2 s ^-1 . During the Run 2 data-taking period (2015–2018), the LHC achieved an instantaneous luminosity of twice its design value, resulting in larger background rates and making the efficient detection of muons more difficult. While some backgrounds result from natural radioactivity, cosmic rays, and interactions of the circulating protons with residual gas in the beam pipe, the dominant source of background hits in the muon system arises from proton–proton interactions themselves. Charged hadrons leaving the calorimeters produce energy deposits in the muon chambers. In addition, high-energy particles interacting in the hadron calorimeter and forward shielding elements generate thermal neutrons, which leak out of the calorimeter and shielding structures, filling the CMS cavern. We describe the method used to measure the background rates in the various muon subsystems. These rates, in conjunction with simulations, can be used to estimate the expected backgrounds in the High-Luminosity LHC. This machine will run for at least 10 years starting in 2029 reaching an instantaneous luminosity of ℒ = 5 ×10^34 cm^-2 s^-1 and increasing ultimately to ℒ = 7.5 ×10^34 cm^-2 s^-1 . These background estimates have been a key ingredient for the planning and design of the muon detector upgrade.

AbstractThe CMS detector, including its muon system, has been operating at the CERN LHC in increasingly challenging conditions for about 15 years. The muon detector was designed to provide excellent triggering and track reconstruction for muons produced in proton–proton collisons at an instantaneous luminosity ($$\mathcal {L}$$ L ) of $$1 \times 10^{34}$$ 1 × 10 34 cm$$^{-2}$$ - 2 s$$^{-1}$$ - 1 . During the Run 2 data-taking period (2015–2018), the LHC achieved an instantaneous luminosity of twice its design value, resulting in larger background rates and making the efficient detection of muons more difficult. While some backgrounds result from natural radioactivity, cosmic rays, and interactions of the circulating protons with residual gas in the beam pipe, the dominant source of background hits in the muon system arises from proton–proton interactions themselves. Charged hadrons leaving the calorimeters produce energy deposits in the muon chambers. In addition, high-energy particles interacting in the hadron calorimeter and forward shielding elements generate thermal neutrons, which leak out of the calorimeter and shielding structures, filling the CMS cavern. We describe the method used to measure the background rates in the various muon subsystems. These rates, in conjunction with simulations, can be used to estimate the expected backgrounds in the High-Luminosity LHC. This machine will run for at least 10 years starting in 2029 reaching an instantaneous luminosity of $$\mathcal {L} = 5 \times \text {10}^\text {34}\,\text {cm}^\text {-2}\,\text {s}^\text {-1}$$ L = 5 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 and increasing ultimately to $$\mathcal {L} = 7.5 \times \text {10}^\text {34}\,\text {cm}^\text {-2}\,\text {s}^\text {-1}$$ L = 7.5 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 . These background estimates have been a key ingredient for the planning and design of the muon detector upgrade.

The proposed upgrade of the SND@LHC experiment for the High Luminosity phase of the LHC (HL-LHC) will strongly benefit from the presence of a magnetized region, allowing for muon momentum and charge measurement. In this paper we describe an iron core magnet system that is partly integrated with the calorimeter and that is designed to respect the strict constraints from the available space in the experimental cavern, power consumption, and field requirements. Semi-analytical tools are introduced to explore the parameter space, in order to define the primary design options. A full 3-D analysis is then performed in order to validate the optimal choice, and to propose a conceptual design, including sizing of the components, detector performances and stray fields. Several technical options are also discussed, anticipating the design phase.

Abstract The CMS detector, including its muon system, has been operating at the CERN LHC in increasingly challenging conditions for about 15 years. The muon detector was designed to provide excellent triggering and track reconstruction for muons produced in proton–proton collisons at an instantaneous luminosity ( $$\mathcal {L}$$ L ) of $$1 \times 10^{34}$$ 1 × 10 34 cm $$^{-2}$$ - 2 s $$^{-1}$$ - 1 . During the Run 2 data-taking period (2015–2018), the LHC achieved an instantaneous luminosity of twice its design value, resulting in larger background rates and making the efficient detection of muons more difficult. While some backgrounds result from natural radioactivity, cosmic rays, and interactions of the circulating protons with residual gas in the beam pipe, the dominant source of background hits in the muon system arises from proton–proton interactions themselves. Charged hadrons leaving the calorimeters produce energy deposits in the muon chambers. In addition, high-energy particles interacting in the hadron calorimeter and forward shielding elements generate thermal neutrons, which leak out of the calorimeter and shielding structures, filling the CMS cavern. We describe the method used to measure the background rates in the various muon subsystems. These rates, in conjunction with simulations, can be used to estimate the expected backgrounds in the High-Luminosity LHC. This machine will run for at least 10 years starting in 2029 reaching an instantaneous luminosity of $$\mathcal {L} = 5 \times \text {10}^\text {34}\,\text {cm}^\text {-2}\,\text {s}^\text {-1}$$ L = 5 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 and increasing ultimately to $$\mathcal {L} = 7.5 \times \text {10}^\text {34}\,\text {cm}^\text {-2}\,\text {s}^\text {-1}$$ L = 7.5 × 10 34 cm -2 s -1 . These background estimates have been a key ingredient for the planning and design of the muon detector upgrade.

A search is reported for charge-parity D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ $CP$ violation in D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ decays, using data collected in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment in 2018. The analysis uses a dedicated data set that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 41.6 fb$^{-1}$, which consists of about 10 billion events containing a pair of \b hadrons, nearly all of which decay to charm hadrons. The flavor of the neutral D meson is determined by the pion charge in the reconstructed decays D$^{*+}$ $\to$ D$^0\pi^+$ and D$^{*-}$ $\to$ D$^0\pi^-$. The D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ $CP$ asymmetry in D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ is measured to be $A_{CP}$( K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$) = (6.2 $\pm$ 3.0 $\pm$ 0.2 $\pm$ 0.8)%, where the three uncertainties represent the statistical uncertainty, the systematic uncertainty, and the uncertainty in the measurement of the D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ $CP$ asymmetry in the D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}\pi^+\pi^-$ decay. This is the first D$^0$ $\to$ K$^0_\mathrm{S}$K$^0_\mathrm{S}$ $CP$ asymmetry measurement by CMS in the charm sector as well as the first to utilize a fully hadronic final state.

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment prepares its Phase-2 upgrade for the high-luminosity era of the LHC operation (HL-LHC). Due to the increase of occupancy, trigger latency and rates, the full electronics of the CMS Drift Tube (DT) chambers will need to be replaced. In the new design, the time bin for the digitization of the chamber signals will be of around 1 ns, and the totality of the signals will be forwarded asynchronously to the service cavern at full resolution. The new backend system will be in charge of building the trigger primitives of each chamber. These trigger primitives contain the information at chamber level about the muon candidates position, direction, and collision time, and are used as input in the L1 CMS trigger. The added functionalities will improve the robustness of the system against ageing. An algorithm based on analytical solutions for reconstructing the DT trigger primitives, called Analytical Method, has been implemented both as a software C++ emulator and in firmware. Its performance has been estimated using the software emulator with simulated and real data samples, and through hardware implementation tests. Measured efficiencies are 96 to 98% for all qualities and time and spatial resolutions are close to the ultimate performance of the DT chambers. A prototype chain of the HL-LHC electronics using the Analytical Method for trigger primitive generation has been installed during Long Shutdown 2 of the LHC and operated in CMS cosmic data taking campaigns in 2020 and 2021. Results from this validation step, the so-called Slice Test, are presented.

We report the direct observation of muon neutrino interactions with the SND@LHC detector at the Large Hadron Collider. A dataset of proton-proton collisions at sqrt[s]=13.6  TeV collected by SND@LHC in 2022 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36.8  fb^{-1}. The search is based on information from the active electronic components of the SND@LHC detector, which covers the pseudorapidity region of 7.2<η<8.4, inaccessible to the other experiments at the collider. Muon neutrino candidates are identified through their charged-current interaction topology, with a track propagating through the entire length of the muon detector. After selection cuts, 8 ν_{μ} interaction candidate events remain with an estimated background of 0.086 events, yielding a significance of about 7 standard deviations for the observed ν_{μ} signal.

Using a data sample of $$\sqrt{s}=13\,\text {TeV}$$ proton-proton collisions collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017 and 2018 with an integrated luminosity of $$103\text {~fb}^{-1}$$ , the $$\text {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0}$$ and $$\text {B}^{0} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0} \uppi ^+\uppi ^-$$ decays are observed with significances exceeding 5 standard deviations. The resulting branching fraction ratios, measured for the first time, correspond to $${\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})K_\mathrm{S}^{0})/{\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0}\rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})K_\mathrm{S}^{0}) = (3.33 \pm 0.69 (\text {stat})\, \pm 0.11\,(\text {syst}) \pm 0.34\,(f_{\mathrm{s}}/f_{\mathrm{d}})) \times 10^{-2}$$ and $${\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}_\mathrm{S}^{0} \uppi ^{+} \uppi ^{-})/ {\mathcal {B}}(\text {B}^{0} \rightarrow \uppsi (\text {2S})\text {K}^{0}_{\mathrm{S}}) = 0.480 \pm 0.013\,(\text {stat}) \pm 0.032\,(\text {syst})$$ , where the last uncertainty in the first ratio is related to the uncertainty in the ratio of production cross sections of $$\hbox {B}^{0}_{\mathrm{s}}$$ and $$\hbox {B}^{0}$$ mesons, $$f_{\mathrm{s}}/f_{\mathrm{d}}$$ .

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb(-1) collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on themodel, the combined result excludes a top squarkmass up to 1325 GeV for amassless neutralino, and a neutralinomass up to 700 GeV for a top squarkmass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative signal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV.

The second-order Fourier coefficients (v(2)) characterizing the azimuthal distributions of Y(1S) and Y(2S) mesons produced in PbPb collisions at root s(NN) = 5.02 TeV are studied. The Y mesons are reconstructed in their dimuon decay channel, as measured by the CMS detector. The collected data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 nb(-1). The scalar product method is used to extract the v2 coefficients of the azimuthal distributions. Results are reported for the rapidity range vertical bar y vertical bar < 2.4, in the transverse momentum interval 0 < pT < 50 GeV/c, and in three centrality ranges of 10-30%, 30-50% and 50-90%. In contrast to the J/psi mesons, the measured v(2) values for the Y mesons are found to be consistent with zero. (C) 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V.

A measurement is presented of electroweak (EW) production of a W boson in association with two jets in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 Te . The data sample was recorded by the CMS Collaboration at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb - 1 . The measurement is performed for the l ν jj final state (with l ν indicating a lepton-neutrino pair, and j representing the quarks produced in the hard interaction) in a kinematic region defined by invariant mass m jj \u003e 120 Ge and transverse momenta p T j \u003e 25 Ge . The cross section of the process is measured in the electron and muon channels yielding σ EW ( W jj ) = 6.23 ± 0.12 (stat) ± 0.61 (syst) pb per channel, in agreement with leading-order standard model predictions. The additional hadronic activity of events in a signal-enriched region is studied, and the measurements are compared with predictions. The final state is also used to perform a search for anomalous trilinear gauge couplings. Limits on anomalous trilinear gauge couplings associated with dimension-six operators are given in the framework of an effective field theory. The corresponding 95% confidence level intervals are - 2.3 c W W W / Λ 2 2.5 Te - 2 , - 8.8 c W / Λ 2 16 Te - 2 , and - 45 c B / Λ 2 46 Te - 2 . These results are combined with the CMS EW Zjj analysis, yielding the constraint on the c W W W coupling: - 1.8 c W W W / Λ 2 2.0 Te - 2 .

We discuss an experiment to investigate neutrino physics at the LHC, with emphasis on tau flavour. As described in our previous paper Beni et al (2019 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 46 115008), the detector can be installed in the decommissioned TI18 tunnel, approximate to 480 m downstream the ATLAS cavern, after the first bending dipoles of the LHC arc. The detector intercepts the intense neutrino flux, generated by the LHC beams colliding in IP1, at large pseudorapidity eta, where neutrino energies can exceed a TeV. This paper focuses on exploring the neutrino pseudorapity versus energy phase space available in TI18 in order to optimize the detector location and acceptance for neutrinos originating at the pp interaction point, in contrast to neutrinos from pion and kaon decays. The studies are based on the comparison of simulated pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV: PYTHIA events of heavy quark (c and b) production, compared to DPMJET minimum bias events (including charm) with produced particles traced through realistic LHC optics with FLUKA. Our studies favour a configuration where the detector is positioned off the beam axis, slightly above the ideal prolongation of the LHC beam from the straight section, covering 7.4 < eta < 9.2. In this configuration, the flux at high energies (0.5-1.5 TeV and beyond) is found to be dominated by neutrinos originating directly from IP1, mostly from charm decays, of which approximate to 50% are electron neutrinos and approximate to 5% are tau neutrinos. The contribution of pion and kaon decays to the muon neutrino flux is found small at those high energies. With 150 fb(-1) of delivered LHC luminosity in Run 3 the experiment can record a few thousand very high energy neutrino charged current (CC) interactions and over 50 tau neutrino CC events. These events provide useful information in view of a high statistics experiment at HL-LHC. The electron and muon neutrino samples can extend the knowledge of the charm PDF to a new region of x, which is dominated by theory uncertainties. The tau neutrino sample can provide first experience on reconstruction of tau neutrino events in a very boosted regime.

A search is conducted for a low-mass charged Higgs boson produced in a top quark decay and subsequently decaying into a charm and a strange quark. The data sample was recorded in proton-proton collisions at $\\sqrt{s}=$ 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed in the process of top quark pair production, where one top quark decays to a bottom quark and a charged Higgs boson, and the other to a bottom quark and a W boson. With the W boson decaying to a charged lepton (electron or muon) and a neutrino, the final state comprises an isolated lepton, missing transverse momentum, and at least four jets, of which two are tagged as b jets. To enhance the search sensitivity, one of the jets originating from the charged Higgs boson is required to satisfy a charm tagging selection. No significant excess beyond standard model predictions is found in the dijet invariant mass distribution. An upper limit in the range 1.68-0.25% is set on the branching fraction of the top quark decay to the charged Higgs boson and bottom quark for a charged Higgs boson mass between 80 and 160 GeV.

Anisotropies in the initial energy density distribution of the quark-gluon plasma created in high energy heavy ion collisions lead to anisotropies in the azimuthal distributions of the final-state particles known as collective anisotropic flow. Fourier harmonic decomposition is used to quantify these anisotropies. The higher-order harmonics can be induced by the same order anisotropies (linear response) or by the combined influence of several lower order anisotropies (nonlinear response) in the initial state. The mixed higher-order anisotropic flow and nonlinear response coefficients of charged particles are measured as functions of transverse momentum and centrality in collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies and 5.02 with the CMS detector. The results are compared with viscous hydrodynamic calculations using several different initial conditions, as well as microscopic transport model calculations. None of the models provides a simultaneous description of the mixed higher-order flow harmonics and nonlinear response coefficients.