This article is a short and non-exhaustive summary of the prospects to find New Physics with LHCb as was presented at the HCP conference at Toronto on August 26th 2010.
The direct searches for Beyond Standard Model (BSM) particles have been constraining their mass scale to the extent where it is now becoming consensual that such particles are likely to be above the energy reach of the LHC. Meanwhile, the studies of indirect probes of BSM physics, with all their diversity, have been progressing both in accurracy and in setting up observables with reduced theoretical uncertainties. The observation of flavour anomalies in $b$ hadron decays represents an important part of the program of indirect detection of BSM physics. Several benchmark analyses involving leptonic or semileptonic decays are presented, with an emphasis on intriguing patterns which are systematic in their trend, though not individually significant yet.
Rare decays of heavy-flavoured particles provide an ideal laboratory to look for deviations from the Standard Model, and explore energy regimes beyond the LHC reach. Decays proceeding via electroweak penguin diagrams are excellent probes to search for New Physics, and $b to s ell^{+}ell^{-}$ processes are particularly interesting since they give access to many observables such as branching fractions, asymmetries and angular observables. Recent results from the LHCb experiment are reviewed.
The LHCb experiment has the potential, during the 2010-11 run, to observe the rare decay $B^0_sto mu^+mu^-$ or improve significantly its exclusion limits. This study will provide very sensitive probes of New Physics (NP) effects. High sensitivity to NP contributions is also achieved by measuring photon polarization by performing a time dependent analysis of $B^0_s to phigamma$, and by an angular study of the decay $B^0_d to K^{*0}mu^+mu^-$. Preparations for these analyses are presented and studies shown of how existing data, for example prompt $J/psi$ events, can be used to validate the analysis strategy.
While the LHC did not observe direct evidence for physics beyond the standard model, indirect hints for new physics were uncovered in the flavour sector in the decays $Bto K^*mu^+mu^-$, $Bto Kmu^+mu^-/Bto Ke^+e^-$, $B_stophimu^+mu^-$, $Bto D^{(*)}tau u$ and $htotau^pmmu^mp$. Each observable deviates from the SM predictions at the $2-3,sigma$ level only, but combining all $bto smu^+mu^-$ data via a global fit, one finds $4-5,sigma$ difference for NP compared to the SM and combining $Bto D^{*}tau u$ with $Bto Dtau u$ one obtains $3.9,sigma$. While $Bto D^{(*)}tau u$ and $htotaumu$ can be naturally explained by an extended Higgs sector, the $bto smu^+mu^-$ anomalies point at a $Z$ gauge boson. However, it is also possible to explain $Bto D^{(*)}tau u$ and $bto smu^+mu^-$ simultaneously with leptoquarks while their effect in $htotau^pmmu^mp$ is far too small to account for current data. Combining a 2HDM with a gauged $L_mu-L_tau$ symmetry allows for explaining the $bto smu^+mu^-$ anomalies in combination with $htotau^pmmu^mp$, predicting interesting correlations with $tauto3mu$. In the light of these deviations from the SM we also discuss the possibilities of observing lepton flavour violating $B$ decays (e.g. $Bto K^{(*)}tau^pmmu^mp$ and $B_stotau^pmmu^mp$).
We discuss the possibility of observing a loosely bound molecular state in a B three-body hadronic decay. In particular we use the QCD sum rule approach to study a $eta^prime-pi$ molecular current. We consider an isovector-scalar $I^G J^{PC}= 1^-~0^{++}$ molecular current and we use the two-point and three-point functions to study the mass and decay width of such state. We consider the contributions of condensates up to dimension six and we work at leading order in $alpha_s$. We obtain a mass around 1.1 GeV, consistent with a loosely bound state, and a $eta^prime-pirightarrow K^+ K^-$ decay width around 10 MeV.