The LHCb experiment is dedicated to precision measurements of CP violation and rare decays of B hadrons at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Geneva). The initial configuration and expected performance of the detector and associated systems, as established by test beam measurements and simulation studies, is described.

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We study B --> K(*)l+l- decays (l = e, mu) based on a data sample of 657 x 10(6) BB pairs collected with the Belle detector at the KEKB e+e- collider. We report the differential branching fraction, isospin asymmetry, K* polarization, and the forward-backward asymmetry (A(FB)) as functions of q2 = M(ll)(2)c2. The fitted A(FB) spectrum exceeds the standard model expectation by 2.7 standard deviations. The measured branching fractions are B(B --> K*l+l-) = (10.7(-1.0)(+1.1) +/- 0.9) x 10(-7) and B(B --> Kl+l-) = (4.8(-0.4)(+0.5) +/- 0.3) x 10(-7), where the first errors are statistical and the second are systematic, with the muon to electron ratios R(K*) = 0.83 +/- 0.17 +/- 0.08 and R(K) = 1.03 +/- 0.19 +/- 0.06.

We report the observation of the decay mode B(+/-) --> p(-)pK(+/-)based on an analysis of 29.4 fb(-1) of data collected by the Belle detector at KEKB. This is the first example of a b-->s transition with baryons in the final state. The p(-)p mass spectrum in this decay is inconsistent with phase space and is peaked at low mass. The branching fraction for this decay is measured to be B(B+/--->p(-)pK+/-) = [4.3(+1.1)(-0.9)(stat)+/-0.5(syst)]x 10(-6). We also report upper limits for the decays B(0)-->p(-)pK(S) and B(+/-)-->p(-)p pi(+/-).

We perform a full amplitude analysis of B 0 → ψ ′ K + π − decays, with ψ ′ → µ + µ − or e + e − , to constrain the spin and parity of the Z(4430) −. The J P = 1 + hypothesis is favored over the 0 − , 1 − , 2 − and 2 + hypotheses at the levels of 3.4σ, 3.7σ, 4.7σ and 5.1σ, respectively. The analysis is based on a 711 fb −1 data sample that contains 772 × 10 6 BB pairs collected at the Υ(4S) resonance by the Belle detector at the asymmetric-energy e + e − collider KEKB.

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