The $B_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson is observed for the first time in heavy ion collisions. Data from the CMS detector are used to study the production of the $B_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} =$ 5.02 TeV, via the $B_\mathrm{c}^+ \to (J/\psi\to\mu^+\mu^-)\mu^+\nu_\mu$ decay. The $B_\mathrm{c}^+$ nuclear modification factor, derived from the PbPb-to-pp ratio of production cross sections, is measured in two bins of the trimuon transverse momentum and of the PbPb collision centrality. The B$_\mathrm{c}^+$ meson is shown to be less suppressed than quarkonia and most of the open heavy-flavor mesons, suggesting that effects of the hot and dense nuclear matter created in heavy ion collisions contribute to its production. This measurement sets forth a promising new probe of the interplay of suppression and enhancement mechanisms in the production of heavy-flavor mesons in the quark-gluon plasma.

Spectra of identified charged hadrons are measured in pPb collisions with the CMS detector at the LHC at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV. Charged pions, kaons, and protons in the transverse-momentum range pt approximately 0.1-1.7 GeV and laboratory rapidity abs(y) < 1 are identified via their energy loss in the silicon tracker. The average pt increases with particle mass and the charged multiplicity of the event. The increase of the average pt with charged multiplicity is greater for heavier hadrons. Comparisons to Monte Carlo event generators reveal that EPOS LHC, which incorporates additional hydrodynamic evolution of the created system, is able to reproduce most of the data features, unlike HIJING and AMPT. The pt spectra and integrated yields are also compared to those measured in pp and PbPb collisions at various energies. The average transverse momentum and particle ratio measurements indicate that particle production at LHC energies is strongly correlated with event particle multiplicity.

The structure of nucleons is multidimensional and depends on the transverse momenta, spatial geometry, and polarization of the constituent partons. Such a structure can be studied using high-energy photons produced in ultraperipheral heavy-ion collisions. The first measurement of the azimuthal angular correlations of exclusively produced events with two jets in photon-lead interactions at large momentum transfer is presented, a process that is considered to be sensitive to the underlying nuclear gluon polarization. This study uses a data sample of ultraperipheral lead-lead collisions at $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.02 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.38 nb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The measured second harmonic of the correlation between the sum and difference of the two jet momenta is found to be positive, and rising, as the dijet momentum increases. A well-tuned model that has been successful at describing a wide range of proton scattering data from the HERA experiments fails to describe the observed correlations, suggesting the presence of gluon polarization effects.

We present a measurement of b jet transverse momentum (pt) spectra in proton-lead (pPb) collisions using a dataset corresponding to about 35 inverse nanobarns collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Jets from b quark fragmentation are found by exploiting the long lifetime of hadrons containing a b quark through tagging methods using distributions of the secondary vertex mass and displacement. Extracted cross sections for b jets are scaled by the effective number of nucleon-nucleon collisions and are compared to a reference obtained from PYTHIA simulations of pp collisions. The PYTHIA-based estimate of the nuclear modification factor is found to be 1.22 +/- 0.15 (stat + syst pPb) +/- 0.27 (syst PYTHIA) averaged over all jets with pt between 55 and 400 GeV/c and with abs(eta[lab]) < 2. We also compare this result to predictions from models using perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics.

The production cross sections of the B+, B0, and B0s mesons, and of their charge conjugates, are measured via exclusive hadronic decays in pPb collisions at the center-of-mass energy sqrt(s_NN) = 5.02 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The data set used for this analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 inverse nanobarns. The production cross sections are measured in the transverse momentum range between 10 and 60 GeV/c. No significant modification is observed compared to proton-proton perturbative QCD calculations scaled by the number of incoherent nucleon-nucleon collisions. These results provide a baseline for the study of in-medium b quark energy loss in PbPb collisions.

The second-order azimuthal anisotropy Fourier harmonics, v2, are obtained in pPb and PbPb collisions over a wide pseudorapidity (eta) range based on correlations among six or more charged particles. The pPb data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35 inverse nanobarns, were collected during the 2013 LHC pPb run at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV by the CMS experiment. A sample of semi-peripheral PbPb collision data at sqrt(s[NN])= 2.76 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.5 inverse microbarns and covering a similar range of particle multiplicities as the pPb data, is also analyzed for comparison. The six- and eight-particle cumulant and the Lee-Yang zeros methods are used to extract the v2 coefficients, extending previous studies of two- and four-particle correlations. For both the pPb and PbPb systems, the v2 values obtained with correlations among more than four particles are consistent with previously published four-particle results. These data support the interpretation of a collective origin for the previously observed long-range (large Delta[eta]) correlations in both systems. The ratios of v2 values corresponding to correlations including different numbers of particles are compared to theoretical predictions that assume a hydrodynamic behavior of a pPb system dominated by fluctuations in the positions of participant nucleons. These results provide new insights into the multi-particle dynamics of collision systems with a very small overlapping region.

The production of jets associated to bottom quarks is measured for the first time in PbPb collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV per nucleon pair. Jet spectra are reported in the transverse momentum (pt) range of 80-250 GeV, and within pseudorapidity abs(eta < 2). The nuclear modification factor (R[AA]) calculated from these spectra shows a strong suppression in the b-jet yield in PbPb collisions relative to the yield observed in pp collisions at the same energy. The suppression persists to the largest values of pt studied, and is centrality dependent. The R[AA] is about 0.4 in the most central events, similar to previous observations for inclusive jets. This implies that jet quenching does not have a strong dependence on parton mass and flavor in the jet pt range studied.

The first study of W boson production in pPb collisions is presented, for bosons decaying to a muon or electron, and a neutrino. The measurements are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 inverse nanobarns at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment. The W boson differential cross sections, lepton charge asymmetry, and forward-backward asymmetries are measured for leptons of transverse momentum exceeding 25 GeV, and as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity in the abs(eta[lab]) < 2.4 range. Deviations from the expectations based on currently available parton distribution functions are observed, showing the need for including W boson data in nuclear parton distribution global fits.

The production of Z bosons is studied in the dimuon and dielectron decay channels in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV, using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The PbPb data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 150 inverse microbarns, while the pp data sample collected in 2013 at the same nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy has an integrated luminosity of 5.4 inverse picobarns. The Z boson yield is measured as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum, and collision centrality. The ratio of PbPb to pp yields, scaled by the number of inelastic nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to be 1.06 +/- 0.05 (stat) +/- 0.08 (syst) in the dimuon channel and 1.02 +/- 0.08 (stat) +/- 0.15 (syst) in the dielectron channel, for centrality-integrated Z boson production. This binary collision scaling is seen to hold in the entire kinematic region studied, as expected for a colourless probe that is unaffected by the hot and dense QCD medium produced in heavy ion collisions.

The ratio between the prompt psi(2S) and J/psi yields, reconstructed via their decays into muon pairs, is measured in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV. The analysis is based on PbPb and pp data samples collected by CMS at the LHC, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 150 inverse microbarns and 5.4 inverse picobarns, respectively. The double ratio of measured yields, (N[psi(2S)]/N[J/psi])[PbPb] / (N[psi(2S)]/ N[J/psi])[pp], is computed in three PbPb collision centrality bins and two kinematic ranges: one at midrapidity, abs(y) < 1.6, covering the transverse momentum range 6.5 < pt < 30 GeV/c, and the other at forward rapidity, 1.6 < abs(y) < 2.4, extending to lower pt values, 3 < pt < 30 GeV/c. The centrality-integrated double ratio changes from 0.45 +/- 0.13 (stat) +/- 0.07 (syst) in the first range to 1.67 +/- 0.34 (stat) +/- 0.27 (syst) in the second. This difference is most pronounced in the most central collisions.