The standard model of particle physics currently provides our best description of fundamental particles and their interactions. The theory predicts that the different charged leptons, the electron, muon and tau, have identical electroweak interaction strengths. Previous measurements have shown that a wide range of particle decays are consistent with this principle of lepton universality. This article presents evidence for the breaking of lepton universality in beauty-quark decays, with a significance of 3.1 standard deviations, based on proton–proton collision data collected with the LHCb detector at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. The measurements are of processes in which a beauty meson transforms into a strange meson with the emission of either an electron and a positron, or a muon and an antimuon. If confirmed by future measurements, this violation of lepton universality would imply physics beyond the standard model, such as a new fundamental interaction between quarks and leptons.

A simultaneous analysis of the $B^{+}\to K^{+}{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ and $B^0\to K^{*0}{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ decays is performed to test muon-electron universality in two ranges of the square of the dilepton invariant mass, $q^2$. The measurement uses a sample of beauty meson decays produced in proton-proton collisions collected with the LHCb detector between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. A sequence of multivariate selections and strict particle identification requirements produce a higher signal purity and a better statistical sensitivity per unit luminosity than previous LHCb lepton universality tests using the same decay modes. Residual backgrounds due to misidentified hadronic decays are studied using data and included in the fit model. Each of the four lepton universality measurements reported is either the first in the given $q^2$ interval or supersedes previous LHCb measurements. The results are compatible with the predictions of the Standard Model.

The branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to D^{*-}{\tau }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau })$ is measured relative to that of the normalization mode $B^0\to D^{*-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ using hadronic ${\tau }^{+}\to {\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}({\pi }^0){\overline{\nu }}_{\tau }$ decays in proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $2{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. The measured ratio is $\mathcal{B}(B^0\to D^{*-}{\tau }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau })/\mathcal{B}(B^0\to D^{*-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+})=1.70\pm 0.10_{-0.10}^{+0.11}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is related to systematic effects. Using established branching fractions for the $B^0\to D^{*-}{\pi }^{+}{\pi }^{-}{\pi }^{+}$ and $B^0\to D^{*-}{\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu }$ modes, the lepton universality test $\mathcal{R}(D^{*-})\equiv \mathcal{B}(B^0\to D^{*-}{\tau }^{+}{\nu }_{\tau })/\mathcal{B}(B^0\to D^{*-}{\mu }^{+}{\nu }_{\mu })$ is calculated, $\mathcal{R}(D^{*-})=0.247\pm 0.015\pm 0.015\pm 0.012$, where the third uncertainty is due to the uncertainties on the external branching fractions. This result is consistent with the Standard Model prediction and with previous measurements.

The LHCb upgrade represents a major change of the experiment. The detectors have been almost completely renewed to allow running at an instantaneous luminosity five times larger than that of the previous running periods. Readout of all detectors into an all-software trigger is central to the new design, facilitating the reconstruction of events at the maximum LHC interaction rate, and their selection in real time. The experiment's tracking system has been completely upgraded with a new pixel vertex detector, a silicon tracker upstream of the dipole magnet and three scintillating fibre tracking stations downstream of the magnet. The whole photon detection system of the RICH detectors has been renewed and the readout electronics of the calorimeter and muon systems have been fully overhauled. The first stage of the all-software trigger is implemented on a GPU farm. The output of the trigger provides a combination of totally reconstructed physics objects, such as tracks and vertices, ready for final analysis, and of entire events which need further offline reprocessing. This scheme required a complete revision of the computing model and rewriting of the experiment's software.

The ratio of branching fractions of the decays $$ {\Lambda}_b^0 $$ Λ b 0 → pK ⁻ e ⁺ e ⁻ and $$ {\Lambda}_b^0 $$ Λ b 0 → pK ⁻ μ ⁺ μ ⁻ , $$ {R}_{pK}^{-1} $$ R pK − 1 , is measured for the first time using proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb ⁻¹ recorded with the LHCb experiment at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13 TeV. In the dilepton mass-squared range 0.1 < q ² < 6.0 GeV² /c ⁴ and the pK ⁻ mass range m(pK ⁻ ) < 2600 MeV/c ², the ratio of branching fractions is measured to be $$ {R}_{pK}^{-1}={1.17}_{-0.16}^{+0.18}\pm 0.07 $$ R pK − 1 = 1.17 − 0.16 + 0.18 ± 0.07 , where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. This is the first test of lepton universality with b baryons and the first observation of the decay $$ {\Lambda}_b^0 $$ Λ b 0 → pK ⁻ e ⁺ e ⁻ .

Resonant contributions in $B^0\to \overline{D}{{}^{0}D}_s^{+}{\pi }^{-}$ and $B^{+}\to D^{-}{D}_s^{+}{\pi }^{+}$ decays are determined with an amplitude analysis, which is performed both separately and simultaneously, where in the latter case isospin symmetry between the decays is assumed. The analysis is based on data collected by the LHCb detector in proton-proton collisions at center-of-mass energies of 7, 8, and 13 TeV. The full data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of $9{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$. A doubly charged spin-0 open-charm tetraquark candidate together with a neutral partner, both with masses near 2.9 GeV, are observed in the $D_s\pi$ decay channel.