The differential cross sections for inclusive neutral pions as a function of transverse and longitudinal momentum in the very forward rapidity region have been measured at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the Large Hadron Collider forward detector (LHCf) in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 2.76 and 7 TeV and in proton-lead collisions at nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energies of $\sqrt{s_\text{NN}}=$ 5.02 TeV. Such differential cross sections in proton-proton collisions are compatible with the hypotheses of limiting fragmentation and Feynman scaling. Comparing proton-proton with proton-lead collisions, we find a sizable suppression of the production of neutral pions in the differential cross sections after subtraction of ultra-peripheral proton-lead collisions. This suppression corresponds to the nuclear modification factor value of about 0.1-0.3. The experimental measurements presented in this paper provide a benchmark for the hadronic interaction Monte Carlo simulation codes that are used for the simulation of cosmic ray air showers.

In this paper, we report the measurement relative to the production of forward neutrons in proton-proton collisions at $\mathrm{\sqrt{s} = 13~TeV}$ obtained using the LHCf Arm2 detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The results for the inclusive differential production cross section are presented as a function of energy in three different pseudorapidity regions: $\eta > 10.76$, $8.99 < \eta < 9.22$ and $8.81 < \eta < 8.99$. The analysis was performed using a data set acquired in June 2015 that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $\mathrm{0.194~nb^{-1}}$. The measurements were compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models used to simulate air showers generated by Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays. None of these generators showed good agreement with the data for all pseudorapidity intervals. For $\eta > 10.76$, no model is able to reproduce the observed peak structure at around $\mathrm{5~TeV}$ and all models underestimate the total production cross section: among them, QGSJET II-04 shows the smallest deficit with respect to data for the whole energy range. For $8.99 < \eta < 9.22$ and $8.81 < \eta < 8.99$, the models having the best overall agreement with data are SIBYLL 2.3 and EPOS-LHC, respectively: in particular, in both regions SIBYLL 2.3 is able to reproduce the observed peak structure at around $\mathrm{1.5-2.5~TeV}$.

In this paper, we report the production cross-section of forward photons in the pseudorapidity regions of $\eta\,&gt;\,10.94$ and $8.99\,&gt;\,\eta\,&gt;\,8.81$, measured by the LHCf experiment with proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV. The results from the analysis of 0.191 $\mathrm{nb^{-1}}$ of data obtained in June 2015 are compared to the predictions of several hadronic interaction models that are used in air-shower simulations for ultra-high-energy cosmic rays. Although none of the models agree perfectly with the data, EPOS-LHC shows the best agreement with the experimental data among the models.

In this paper, we report the measurement of the energy flow, the cross section and the average inelasticity of forward neutrons (+ antineutrons) produced in $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collisions. These quantities are obtained from the inclusive differential production cross section, measured using the LHCf Arm2 detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are performed in six pseudorapidity regions: three of them ($\eta > 10.75$, $8.99 < \eta < 9.21$ and $8.80 < \eta < 8.99$), albeit with smaller acceptance and larger uncertainties, were already published in a previous work, whereas the remaining three ($10.06 < \eta < 10.75$, $9.65 < \eta < 10.06$ and $8.65 < \eta < 8.80$) are presented here for the first time. The analysis was carried out using a data set acquired in June 2015 with a corresponding integrated luminosity of $\mathrm{0.194~nb^{-1}}$. Comparing the experimental measurements with the expectations of several hadronic interaction models used to simulate cosmic ray air showers, none of these generators resulted to have a satisfactory agreement in all the phase space selected for the analysis. The inclusive differential production cross section for $\eta > 10.75$ is not reproduced by any model, whereas the results still indicate a significant but less serious deviation at lower pseudorapidities. Depending on the pseudorapidity region, the generators showing the best overall agreement with data are either SIBYLL 2.3 or EPOS-LHC. Furthermore, apart from the most forward region, the derived energy flow and cross section distributions are best reproduced by EPOS-LHC. Finally, even if none of the models describe the elasticity distribution in a satisfactory way, the extracted average inelasticity is consistent with the QGSJET II-04 value, while most of the other generators give values that lie just outside the experimental uncertainties.

The forward $\eta$ mesons production has been observed by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment in proton-proton collision at $\sqrt{s}$=13 TeV. This paper presents the measurement of the inclusive production rate of $\eta$ in $p_T<$ 1.1 GeV/c, expressed as a function of the Feynman-x variable. These results are compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models commonly used for the modelling of the air showers produced by ultra-high energy cosmic rays. This is both the first measurement of $\eta$ mesons from LHCf and the first time a particle containing strange quarks has been observed in the forward region for high-energy collisions. These results will provide a powerful constraint on hadronic interaction models for the purpose of improving the understanding of the processes underlying the air showers produced in the Earth's atmosphere by ultra-energetic cosmic rays.

The inclusive production rate of neutral pions in the rapidity range greater than $y=8.9$ has been measured by the Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment during LHC $\sqrt{s}=7$\,TeV proton-proton collision operation in early 2010. This paper presents the transverse momentum spectra of the neutral pions. The spectra from two independent LHCf detectors are consistent with each other and serve as a cross check of the data. The transverse momentum spectra are also compared with the predictions of several hadronic interaction models that are often used for high energy particle physics and for modeling ultra-high-energy cosmic-ray showers.

The Large Hadron Collider forward (LHCf) experiment is designed to use the LHC to verify the hadronic-interaction models used in cosmic-ray physics. Forward baryon production is one of the crucial points to understand the development of cosmic-ray showers. We report the neutron-energy spectra for LHC $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV proton--proton collisions with the pseudo-rapidity $\eta$ ranging from 8.81 to 8.99, from 8.99 to 9.22, and from 10.76 to infinity. The measured energy spectra obtained from the two independent calorimeters of Arm1 and Arm2 show the same characteristic feature before unfolding the difference in the detector responses. We unfolded the measured spectra by using the multidimensional unfolding method based on Bayesian theory, and the unfolded spectra were compared with current hadronic-interaction models. The QGSJET II-03 model predicts a high neutron production rate at the highest pseudo-rapidity range similar to our results and the DPMJET 3.04 model describes our results well at the lower pseudo-rapidity ranges. However no model perfectly explains the experimental results in the whole pseudo-rapidity range. The experimental data indicate the most abundant neutron production rate relative to the photon production, which does not agree with predictions of the models.

The TOTEM experiment has measured the charged particle pseudorapidity density dN_{ch}/deta in pp collisions at sqrt{s} = 7 TeV for 5.3<|eta|<6.4 in events with at least one charged particle with transverse momentum above 40 MeV/c in this pseudorapidity range. This extends the analogous measurement performed by the other LHC experiments to the previously unexplored forward eta region. The measurement refers to more than 99% of non-diffractive processes and to single and double diffractive processes with diffractive masses above ~3.4 GeV/c^2, corresponding to about 95% of the total inelastic cross-section. The dN_{ch}/deta has been found to decrease with |eta|, from 3.84 pm 0.01(stat) pm 0.37(syst) at |eta| = 5.375 to 2.38 pm 0.01(stat) pm 0.21(syst) at |eta| = 6.375. Several MC generators have been compared to data; none of them has been found to fully describe the measurement.

A new measurement of the rare, doubly radiative decay eta->pi^0 gamma gamma was conducted with the Crystal Ball and TAPS multiphoton spectrometers together with the photon tagging facility at the Mainz Microtron MAMI. New data on the dependence of the partial decay width, Gamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma), on the two-photon invariant mass squared, m^2(gamma gamma), as well as a new, more precise value for the decay width, Gamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma) = (0.33+/-0.03_tot) eV, are based on analysis of 1.2 x 10^3 eta->pi^0 gamma gamma decays from a total of 6 x 10^7 eta mesons produced in the gamma p -> eta p reaction. The present results for dGamma(eta->pi^0 gamma gamma)/dm^2(gamma gamma) are in good agreement with previous measurements and recent theoretical calculations for this dependence.

Measurements of the tau lepton polarization and forward-backward polarization asymmetry near the Z resonance using the OPAL detector are described. The measurements are based on analyses of tau -> e nu_e nu_tau, tau -> mu nu_mu nu_tau, tau -> pi nu_tau, tau -> rho nu_tau and tau -> a1 nu_tau decays from a sample of 144810 e+e- -> tau+ tau- candidates corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 151 pb-1. Assuming that the tau lepton decays according to V-A theory, we measure the average tau polarization near Ecm = MZ to be <Ptau> = (-14.10 +/- 0.73 +/- 0.55)% and the tau polarization forward-backward asymmetry to be Afb = (-10.55 +/- 0.76 +/- 0.25)%, where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. Taking into account the small effects of the photon propagator, photon-Z interference and photonic radiative corrections, these results can be expressed in terms of the lepton neutral current asymmetry parameters: Atau = 0.1456 +/- 0.0076 +/- 0.0057, Ae = 0.1454 +/- 0.0108 +/- 0.0036. These measurements are consistent with the hypothesis of lepton universality and combine to give Al = 0.1455 +/- 0.0073. Within the context of the Standard Model this combined result corresponds to sin^2(theta)(lept,effective) = 0.23172 +/- 0.00092. Combing these results with those from the other OPAL neutral current measurements yields a value of sin^2(theta)(lept,effective) = 0.23211 +/- 0.00068.

The polarisation of $\tau$'s produced in Z decay is measured using 160 pb$^{-1}$ of data accumulated at LEP by the ALEPH detector between 1990 and 1995. The variation of the polarisation with polar angle yields the two parameters ${\cal A}_e = 0.1504 \pm 0.0068 $ and ${\cal A}_{\tau} = 0.1451 \pm 0.0059$ which are consistent with the hypothesis of $e$-$\tau$ universality. Assuming universality, the value ${\cal A}_{e{-}\tau} = 0.1474 \pm 0.0045$ is obtained from which the effective weak mixing angle $\sin^2 {\theta_{\mathrm{W}}^{\mathrm{eff}}} =0.23147 \pm 0.00057 $ is derived.

Exclusive production of π and K meson pairs in two photon collisions is measured with ALEPH data collected between 1992 and 2000. Cross-sections are presented as a function of cos θ ∗ and invariant mass, for | cos θ ∗ |<0.6 and invariant masses between 2.0 and 6.0 GeV/ c 2 (2.25 and 4.0 GeV/ c 2 ) for pions (kaons). The shape of the distributions are found to be well described by QCD predictions but the data have a significantly higher normalization.

About 4.4 million hadronic decays of Z bosons, recorded by the OPAL detector at LEP at a centre-of-mass energy of around sqrt(s) = 91.2 GeV, are used to determine the mean charged particle multiplicities for the three light quark flavours. Events from primary u, d, and s quarks are tagged by selecting characteristic particles which carry a large fraction of the beam energy. The charged particle multiplicities are measured in the hemispheres opposite to these particles. An unfolding procedure is applied to obtain these multiplicities for each primary light quark flavour. This yields <n_u> = 17.77 +- 0.51 +0.86 -1.20, <n_d> = 21.44 +- 0.63 +1.46 -1.17, <n_s> = 20.02 +- 0.13 +0.39 -0.37, where statistical and systematic errors are given. The results for <n_u> and <n_d> are almost fully statistically anti-correlated. Within the errors the result is consistent with the flavour independence of the strong interaction for the particle multiplicities in events from the light up, down, and strange quarks.

Using a data sample with a total integrated luminosity of 10.0 pb$^{-1}$ collected at center-of-mass energies of 2.6, 3.07 and 3.65 GeV with BESII, cross sections for $e^+e^-$ annihilation into hadronic final states ($R$ values) are measured with statistical errors that are smaller than 1%, and systematic errors that are about 3.5%. The running strong interaction coupling constants $\alpha_s^{(3)}(s)$ and $\alpha_s^{(5)}(M_Z^2)$ are determined from the $R$ values.

The production of D+- and D0 mesons has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA using an integrated luminosity of 133.6 pb-1. The measurements cover the kinematic range 5 < Q^2 < 1000 GeV^2, 0.02 < y < 0.7, 1.5 < p_T^D < 15 GeV and eta^D < 1.6. Combinatorial background to the D meson signals is reduced by using the ZEUS microvertex detector to reconstruct displaced secondary vertices. Production cross sections are compared with the predictions of next-to-leading-order QCD which is found to describe the data well. Measurements are extrapolated to the full kinematic phase space in order to obtain the open-charm contribution, F2^ccbar, to the proton structure function, F2.

By analyzing the data sets of 17.3, 6.5 and 1.0 pb$^{-1}$ taken, respectively, at $\sqrt s= 3.773$, 3.650 and 3.6648 GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we measure the observed cross sections for $e^+e^-\to \pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$, $K^+K^-\pi^0\pi^0$, $2(\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0)$, $K^+K^-\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\pi^0$ and $3(\pi^+\pi^-)\pi^0\pi^0$ at the three energy points. Based on these cross sections we set the upper limits on the observed cross sections and the branching fractions for $\psi(3770)$ decay into these final states at 90% C.L..

By analyzing the data sets of 17.3 pb$^{-1}$ taken at $\sqrt s= 3.773$ GeV and of 6.5 pb$^{-1}$ taken at $\sqrt s= 3.650$ GeV with the BES-II detector at the BEPC collider, we measure the observed cross sections for the exclusive light hadron final states of $K_S^0K^-\pi^+$, $K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^0$, $K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-$, $K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0$, $K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^+\pi^+\pi^-\pi^-$ and $K_S^0K^-\pi^+\pi^0\pi^0$ produced in $e^+ e^-$ annihilation at the two energy points. We set the upper limits on the observed cross sections and the branching fractions for $\psi(3770)$ decay to these final states at 90% C.L..

We have studied the e+e- -> omegapi0 cross section in the sqrt(s) interval 1000-1030 MeV using the pi+pi-pi0pi0 and pi0pi0gamma final states with a sample of ~600 pb^-1 collected with the KLOE detector at DAFNE. By fitting the observed interference pattern around M_phi for both final states, we extract the ratio of the decay widths Gamma(omega->pi0gamma)/Gamma(omega->pi+pi-pi0) = 0.0897 +- 0.0016 and derive the branching fractions BR(omega -> pi+pi-pi0)= (90.24 +- 0.19)%, BR(omega -> pi0gamma) = (8.09 +- 0.14)%. The parameters describing the e+e- -> omegapi0 reaction around M_\phi are also used to extract the branching fraction for the OZI and G-parity violating phi -> omegapi0 decay: BR(phi->omegapi0) = (4.4 +- 0.6)x10^-5.

We report the first measurement of the lepton forward-backward asymmetry ${\cal A}_{\rm FB}$ as a function of the squared four-momentum of the dilepton system, $q^2$, for the electroweak penguin process $B \rightarrow X_s \ell^+ \ell^-$ with a sum of exclusive final states, where $\ell$ is an electron or a muon and $X_s$ is a hadronic recoil system with an $s$ quark. The results are based on a data sample containing $772\times10^6$ $B\bar{B}$ pairs recorded at the $\Upsilon(4S)$ resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB $e^+ e^-$ collider. ${\cal A}_{\rm FB}$ for the inclusive $B \rightarrow X_s \ell^+ \ell^-$ is extrapolated from the sum of 10 exclusive $X_s$ states whose invariant mass is less than 2 GeV/$c^2$. For $q^2 > 10.2$ GeV$^2$/$c^2$, ${\cal A}_{\rm FB} < 0$ is excluded at the 2.3$\sigma$ level, where $\sigma$ is the standard deviation. For $q^2 < 4.3$ GeV$^2$/$c^2$, the result is within 1.8$\sigma$ of the Standard Model theoretical expectation.

The 132 pbt - 1 of data collected by ALEPH from 1991 to 1994 have been used to analyze η and ω production in τ decays. The following branching fractions have been measured: \(B\left( {{\tau ^ - } \to {\nu _\tau }\omega {h^ - }} \right) = \left( {1.91 \pm 0.07 \pm 0.06} \right) \times {10^{ - 2}},\)\(B\left( {{\tau ^ - } \to {\nu _\tau }\omega {h^ - }{\pi ^0}} \right) = \left( {4.3 \pm 0.6 \pm 0.5} \right) \times {10^{ - 3}},\)\(B\left( {{\tau ^ - } \to {\nu _\tau }\eta {K^ - }} \right) = \left( {2.9_{ - 1.2}^{ + 1.3} \pm 0.7} \right) \times {10^{ - 4}},\)\(B\left( {{\tau ^ - } \to {\nu _\tau }\eta {h^ - }{\pi ^0}} \right) = \left( {1.8 \pm 0.4 \pm 0.2} \right) \times {10^{ - 3}}\) and the 95% C.L. limit B(τ− → ντηπt -) < 6.2 × 10t - 4 has been obtained. The ωπt- and ηπt -π0 rates and dynamics are found in agreement with the predictions made from e+e∼ - annihilation data with the help of isospin invariance (CVC).

At the LHC energy of $\sqrt s = 7\,{\mathrm { TeV}}$ , under various beam and background conditions, luminosities, and Roman Pot positions, TOTEM has measured the differential cross-section for proton-proton elastic scattering as a function of the four-momentum transfer squared t. The results of the different analyses are in excellent agreement demonstrating no sizeable dependence on the beam conditions. Due to the very close approach of the Roman Pot detectors to the beam center (≈5σ(beam)) in a dedicated run with β* = 90 m, |t|-values down to 5·10(−)(3) GeV(2) were reached. The exponential slope of the differential elastic cross-section in this newly explored |t|-region remained unchanged and thus an exponential fit with only one constant B = (19.9 ± 0.3) GeV(−)(2) over the large |t|-range from 0.005 to 0.2 GeV(2) describes the differential distribution well. The high precision of the measurement and the large fit range lead to an error on the slope parameter B which is remarkably small compared to previous experiments. It allows a precise extrapolation over the non-visible cross-section (only 9%) to t = 0. With the luminosity from CMS, the elastic cross-section was determined to be (25.4 ± 1.1) mb, and using in addition the optical theorem, the total pp cross-section was derived to be (98.6 ± 2.2) mb. For model comparisons the t-distributions are tabulated including the large |t|-range of the previous measurement (TOTEM Collaboration (Antchev G. et al), EPL, 95 (2011) 41001).

We have observed decays of the ϒ(1S) into hadronic final states containing high-energy photons. These are interpreted as coming from the decay ϒ(1S)→γ+gluon+gluon. We compare the shape of the observed photon energy spectrum with several theoretical predictions and deduce the value of the strong-coupling constant αs and the QCD scale parameter ΛMS― (MS― denotes the modified minimal-subtraction scheme) associated with each prediction.

Data from the high-resolution spectrometer at PEP have been used to study the inclusive production of φ mesons and F± mesons decaying into φπ±. Fragmentation functions and cross sections are presented and compared to existing data. The total φ cross section at 29 GeV is 40±6 pb. The observed F signal in the region z>0.4, given the assumption that R(F)[R(F)+R(D)]=0.15, corresponds to an F→φπ branching ratio of (3.3±1.1)%. The measured F mass is 1963±3±3 MeV/c2.

The inclusive production cross sections and transverse momentum distributions of K*0 and KS0 mesons in e+e− annihilation at a center-of-mass energy of 29 GeV have been measured by means of the time projection chamber detector in the PEP-4 experiment. The mean multiplicites are found to be 0.49 ± 0.04(stat.) ± 0.07(syst.) (K*0+K―*0) and 1.22 ± 0.03(stat.) ±0.15(syst.) (K0+K―0) per event.

The strong coupling alpha_s(M_Z^2) has been measured using hadronic decays of Z^0 bosons collected by the SLD experiment at SLAC. The data were compared with QCD predictions both at fixed order, O(alpha_s^2), and including resummed analytic formulae based on the next-to-leading logarithm approximation. In this comprehensive analysis we studied event shapes, jet rates, particle correlations, and angular energy flow, and checked the consistency between alpha_s(M_Z^2) values extracted from these different measures. Combining all results we obtain alpha_s(M_Z^2) = 0.1200 \pm 0.0025(exp.) \pm 0.0078(theor.), where the dominant uncertainty is from uncalculated higher order contributions.