Measurements of inclusive charged-hadron transverse-momentum and pseudorapidity distributions are presented for proton-proton collisions at √ s = 0.9 and 2.36 TeV. The data were collected with the CMS detector during the LHC commissioning in December 2009. For non-single-diffractive interactions, the average charged-hadron transverse momentum is measured to be 0.46 ± 0.01 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 0.9 TeV and 0.50 ± 0.01 (stat.) ± 0.01 (syst.) GeV/c at 2.36 TeV, for pseudorapidities between −2.4 and +2.4. At these energies, the measured pseudorapidity densities in the central region, dN ch /dη| |η|<0.5 , are 3.48 ± 0.02 (stat.) ± 0.13 (syst.) and 4.47 ± 0.04 (stat.) ± 0.16 (syst.), respectively. The results at 0.9 TeV are in agreement with previous measurements and confirm the expectation of near equal hadron production in pp and pp collisions. The results at 2.36 TeV represent the highest-energy measurements at a particle collider to date.

Charged-particle production was studied in proton-proton collisions collected at the LHC with the ALICE detector at centre-of-mass energies 0.9 TeV and 2.36 TeV in the pseudorapidity range |η| < 1.4. In the central region (|η| < 0.5), at 0.9 TeV, we measure charged-particle pseudo- for non-single-diffractive collisions. The relative increase in charged-particle multiplicity from the lower to higher energy is 24.7% ± 0.5%(stat.) +5.7 −2.8 %(syst.) for inelastic and 23.7% ± 0.5%(stat.) +4.6 −1.1 %(syst.) for non-single-diffractive interactions. This increase is consistent with that reported by the CMS collaboration for non-single-diffractive events and larger than that found by a number of commonly used models. The multiplicity distribution was measured in different pseudorapidity intervals and studied in terms of KNO variables at both energies. The results are compared to protonantiproton data and to model predictions.

Angular distributions of the decay B 0 → K * 0 µ + µ − are studied using a sample of proton-proton collisions at √ s = 8 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 20.5 fb −1 . An angular analysis is performed to determine the P 1 and P 5 parameters, where the P 5 parameter is of particular interest because of recent measurements that indicate a potential discrepancy with the standard model predictions. Based on a sample of 1397 signal events, the P 1 and P 5 parameters are determined as a function of the dimuon invariant mass squared. The measurements are in agreement with predictions based on the standard model.

A measurement of the single-top-quark t-channel production cross section in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC is presented. Two different and complementary approaches have been followed. The first approach exploits the distributions of the pseudorapidity of the recoil jet and reconstructed top-quark mass using background estimates determined from control samples in data. The second approach is based on multivariate analysis techniques that probe the compatibility of the candidate events with the signal. Data have been collected for the muon and electron final states, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.17 and 1.56 fb −1 , respectively. The single-topquark production cross section in the t-channel is measured to be 67.2±6.1 pb, in agreement with the approximate next-to-next-to-leading-order standard model prediction. Using the standard model electroweak couplings, the CKM matrix element |V tb | is measured to be 1.020 ± 0.046 (meas.) ± 0.017 (theor.). Keywords: Hadron-Hadron Scattering Conclusions 21The CMS collaboration 27 IntroductionSingle top quarks can be produced through charged-current electroweak interactions. Due to the large top-quark mass, these processes are well suited to test the predictions of the standard model (SM) of particle physics and to search for new phenomena. Measurements of the single-top-quark production cross section also provide an unbiased determination of the magnitude of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix element |V tb |. Single-top-quark production was observed in proton-antiproton collisions at the Tevatron collider with a centre-of-mass energy of 1. by a factor of 20 at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with respect to the Tevatron. The first measurements of the single-top-quark production cross section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV were performed by the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) [4] and ATLAS [5,6] experiments.Previous measurements are compatible with expectations based on approximate nextto-leading-order and next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NLO+NNLL) perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD) calculations. In these calculations, three types of parton scattering processes are considered: t-channel and s-channel processes, and W-associated single-top-quark production (tW). The dominant contribution to the cross section is expected to be from the t-channel process with a cross section of σ th t-ch. = 64.6 +2.1 −0.7for a top-quark mass of m t = 172.5 GeV/c 2 .This paper extends the previous CMS measurement [4] of the t-channel cross section. The single-top-quark production cross section measurement is based on pp collision data at √ s = 7 TeV collected during 2011 with the CMS experiment, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 1.17 and 1.56 fb −1 with muon and electron final states, respectively. Events with leptonically decaying W bosons are selected: t → bW → b ν ( = e or µ). This measurement is used to determine the CKM matrix element |V tb |.The t-channel event signature (figure 1)...

On 23rd November 2009, during the early commissioning of the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), two counter-rotating proton bunches were circulated for the first time concurrently in the machine, at the LHC injection energy of 450 GeV per beam. Although the proton intensity was very low, with only one pilot bunch per beam, and no systematic attempt was made to optimize the collision optics, all LHC experiments reported a number of collision candidates. In the ALICE experiment, the collision region was centred very well in both the longitudinal and trans- verse directions and 284 events were recorded in coincidence with the two passing proton bunches. The events were immediately reconstructed and analyzed both online and offline. We have used these events to measure the pseudorapidity density of charged primary particles in the central region. In the range |η| < 0.5, we obtain dN ch /dη = 3.10 ± 0.13(stat.) ± 0.22(syst.) for all inelastic interactions, and dN ch /dη = 3.51 ± 0.15(stat.) ± 0.25(syst.) for nonsingle diffractive interactions. These results are consistent with previous measurements in proton-antiproton interactions at the same centre-of-mass energy at the CERN SppS collider. They also illustrate the excellent functioning and rapid progress of the LHC accelerator, and of both the hardware and software of the ALICE experiment, in this early start-up phase.