LHCb, forward particle production, decays of the heavy hadrons and the detector upgrade phases in the HL-LHC era

in English  in Romanian

Financing source (agency):    Institute for Atomic Physics (IFA)

Project code:    PNCDI III, Module CERN-RO, Program 5, Subprogram 5.2; LHCb: contract no. 5/3.01.2022

Project duration:    03.01.2022 to 30.09.2024

Project director:    Dr. Florin MACIUC

Institutions:

Coordinator:"Horia Hulubei" National Institute for Physics and Nuclear Engineering (IFIN-HH),
30 Reactorului, P.O.B. MG-6, RO-077125, Bucharest-Măgurele, Romania, EU
Partner:Ştefan cel Mare University of Suceava (USV), Str. Universitatii 13, RO-720229 Suceava, Romania, EU

E-mail: florin {dot} maciuc [at] cern < dot > ch

Research Team: see TEAM menu entry for a detailed overview of present and former members of the research team.

Most of the present project and the past projects activities are given in detail in the subchapter pages: Team, Research Topics, Service Tasks, Group Seminars, Conference Participation, Publications, Outreach, LHCb Upgrade, Research Facilities accessible from this main page.

Project Summary (as given in grant application)

Our LHCb Collaboration is preparing for the third LHC RUN, and the new data will be recorded with a new LHCb detector. As most equipment is ready and in process of being installed or already installed in the LHCb cavern, we expect to have the first relevant data taking in the first semester of 2022. A first LHC beam test was done in October, and RICH2 sub-detector was able to take a first set of data. The previous LHCb detector collected a total integrated luminosity of about 9 fb-1 mostly at 13, 8 and 7 TeV energy in the proton-proton collision. We hope the next LHCb detector will record more than 30 fb-1 before HL-LHC installation. The project proposed here would support: the LHCb commissioning and maintenance activities in 2022, and in 2023-2024 emphasis would be place of supporting the operation of LHCb RICH detectors over RUN3 - the third RUN of LHC. In addition to the LHCb commissioning, maintenance, and operation, we propose activities correlated with the future LHCb RICH Upgrade for RUN4 (LHCb’s Phase Ib Upgrade) and RUN5 (LHCb’s Phase II Upgrade). These activities would include characterization of Photon Counter sensors, and characterization of the fast and precise integrated circuits considered for the IInd LHCb Upgrade. There will be also tests of these sensors and integrated circuits in special condition of temperature and radiation. As example, one of the proposed solutions for LHCb IInd Upgrade would involve operating RICH electronics and sensors at -70 degrees Celsius in order to permit the Photon Counters to operate in a radiation environment with about 1013 HEH/cm2 (High Energy Hadrons above 20 MeV energy) and much higher neutron fluence. Our aim is to understand the operation of these sensors and integrated circuits in these extreme conditions and propose technical solutions for RICH Upgrade which would allow precise determination of signal time at 100 ps or better and account for the high granularity of the Photon counter - pixel size and density, which must be much better than the current Upgrade.

The data processing and analysis program proposed for this project includes finalization of strangeness production studies which were included in past PhD theses. These are mostly focused on the high rapidity measurements of V0 and hyperon differential cross-sections – differential cross-section which cover the very small transverse momentum spectrum above 30 MeV where the description of soft-QCD processes are poorly constraint by the past measurements. Here we take full advantage of the particle’s long lifetime and the LHCb geometry. Another set of tasks which we want to cover in this project is related to the production of quarkonia – mostly charmonium and bottonium - and the study of generator parameter constraints using strangeness production measurements in: J/ψ, Upsilon or Z-boson triggered/tagged events. In this context we expect to also look at the production of quarkonia and V0/hyperon pairs and search for possible correlations between these particles. A measurement of particle density for the J/ψ and Upsilon produced in LHC proton-proton collision events, is another topic on interest which would place us in collaboration with other institutes. Besides these studies, we also look for possible involvement LHCb groups studying key decay measurement of heavy flavor baryons and spectroscopy. As in our previous LHCb projects we expect to have studies of generator models and tunes which are independent of LHCb program. Using dedicated High Energy Physics measurement data bases like HEPData, we expect to test the validity of certain generator-implemented models especially at high rapidity. This also helps develop analysis tools, produce simulated data samples for the previously proposed LHCb data analyses and allows us to better understand the underlying physics which we see in the LHCb data. It is expected that the partners from University of Suceava would be heavily involved here and we should generate a flow of conference presentation/posters and papers.

In addition to LHCb analyses and the outlined program, out group is involved in LHCb Simulation project - same as RICH project – and other LHCb activities. We support computing services for the LHCb collaboration, like HEPData services, software services, Grid monitoring shifts, data quality checks and shifts, internal review of analyses, paper reviewing, academic tasks (e.g., LHCb thesis), outreach. All these tasks are in addition to the RICH maintenance and operation tasks which we expect to be highly demanding over the next years, as we already see many fabrication problems in the tested RICH systems. Hence, calibration tasks and understanding the new detector will be main objectives in RUN3. Here we also mention the track efficiency mapping which we expect to be done using V0 decays, with the matching of before and after magnet track segments for one of the daughter particles. Thus, we propose a significant involvement in early data measurements in 2022, followed by conference talks and popularization of first LHCb results and performance.

Objectives of the CERN Experiment (as given in grant application)

General objectives of the LHCb experiment are precise measurement of key Standard Model (SM) parameters in the hope we will find large deviations from certain expected value based on SM, deviation which would confirm the presence of contributions from beyond SM. The precision measurements use certain decay channels of beauty and even charm, to determine decay parameter values, like CKM and CP violation parameters. The LHCb full program is more extensive, though, and covers several particle production and decay measurements. In terms of the studied physics, it includes from electroweak boson production measurements to Central Exclusive Processes, i.e., diffractive measurements. The studies of the decays in the LHCb forward acceptance and due to the efficient beauty-triggers, have led to important discoveries such as penta-quark and tetra-quark states. Beauty meson oscillation parameters were better fixed or determined, and there was the relatively recent discovery of D-meson oscillations. New particles have been observed for first time like doubly charmed states. A combination of searches for exotic particles, precise measurement of SM parameters – e.g., neutral B-meson mass difference or lepton universality tests – and measurement of particle production characterize the LHCb scientific program.

In addition to LHCb physics case, we need mention the LHCb detector itself. As a forward single arm spectrometer, the LHCb detector is fully instrumented to detect and reconstruct particles emitted at relatively large rapidities between 2 and 5. The detector includes a precise primary collision vertex locator complemented by a magnet-downstream tracking system and a particle identification system with RICH, calorimeters and Muon detectors. The detector has been upgraded with most detectors already fully or partially installed in the LHCb cavern. The online farm and the data acquisition systems are mostly ready for data taking in first semester of 2022. The present Upgrade process is a culmination of several years of research and development for each LHCb sub-system. Though the present Upgrade is barely finished, LHCb already has submitted to CERN the proposed next Upgrade phase schedule for the long shutdowns LS3 and LS4. Given the lack of new physics observation at LHC so far, and at practical level, the installation schedule in LS3 of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) accelerator, there is a certain sense of urgency at LHCb to research and develop new detector systems using latest sensor and electronics technologies to aim for a forward spectrometer operating at up to 40 LHC collisions per bunch crossing. This upper limit imposes harsh constraints on time resolution and pixel granularity of RICH1 and RICH2 detectors, and equivalent for the other LHCb subsystems. In addition to these constraints, the excessive radiation characteristic of HL-LHC means we can not use most commercial solutions and special requirement are imposed on sensors and front-end electronics. In case of RICH the 1013 HEH /cm2 and the much higher 1 MeV neutron equivalent fluence means the proposed Photon Counters SiPM need to operate at -70 degrees Celsius together with the front-end electronics. The LHCb detector in 3rd LHC run will have to be maintained and operated in new conditions with high instantaneous luminosity and thus high particle multiplicity per LHC bunch crossing.

Computing physics is well developed in LHCb and includes projects like: Online and trigger systems which will operate a first trigger stage implemented using GPU processing; Simulation project which develops among other new tunes of collision generators using LHCb measurement in the forward rapidity and low transverse momentum phase space; Grid computing; and the LHCb reconstruction and analysis software and projects.

Besides these aspects it should be stressed the LHCb outreach and academic programs, the large PhD fraction in LHCb and the close to 600 LHCb publication so far.

List of stages, activities and subactivities for 2022-2024 (as stated in project proposal)

I. Continuation of the LHCb data analysis on RUN2. SiPM, ASIC and FPGA tests data. RUN3 data processing and first studies - First part.

II. Continuation of the LHCb data analysis on RUN2. SiPM, ASIC and FPGA tests data. RUN3 data processing and first studies - Second part.

II.1. ASIC and FPGA tests, Photon Counters first tests. Finalize Commissioning of RICH/LHCb, Operate and maintain RICH in RUN3
II.1.1. Final publications on test data of SRAM and antifuse FPGAs. Preparation of future tests on sensors and integrated circuits for the next Upgrades
II.1.2. 2022 full commissioning of RICH/LHCb, maintenance and operation of RICH in 2022

II.2. Continue RUN2 analyses and finalize publication procedure of strangeness production. RUN3 data trigger optimization and data taking.
II.2.1. Finalize publication procedure and the LHCb internal review for the V0 analysis results. Continue strangeness studies for Xi and Omega.V0 studies for diffractive/soft/Hard QCD events.
II.2.2. Simulation of LHC events for Hard-QCD collisions with Z-boson, Upsilon, J/Psi, and measure corelated production of strangeness and the local density of tracks.
II.2.3. Trigger optimization and first studies of LHCb RUN3 data - tracking calibration and software development. LHCb Service for Simulation Project, HEPData, LHCb shifts.

III. RUN3 data taking, optimization of selections. Tests of electronics (IC) and sensors in extreme temperature and radiation.

III.1. Operation and Maintenance activities for the LHCb RICH1 and RICH2 in 2023. Tests of sensors (SiPM), FastIC chips and associated electronics in radiation and at extreme temperatures
III.2. Computing tasks - HEPData and software for Simulation Project, shifts. Analyses of quarkonium production in simulated samples and comparison with HEPData values.
III.3. First data analyses on RUN3 physics samples beyond 2022 early measurements.

IV. Operation activities for RICH in 2024. Sensors and electronics tests (continuation). First results on RUN3 data other than early measurements.

IV.1. Analyses of data from electronics testing in radiation. Continuation of maintenance activities during RUN3. Next stage of testing on SiPM/MCP and integrated circuits.
IV.2. First results on 2022 and 2023 data analyses. General HEP studies. Detector performance studies and trigger efficiency study. Heavy flavour production and local track multiplicity.


List pf results/deliverables papers, conferences, etc. (2022-2024)

Besides the following papers we are co-authors to several LHCb papers to which we contributed directly and indirectly:

  1. G. C. Salavarin, V. M. Placinta and C. Ravariu, "Proposal of an External Remote Sensing Circuitry for Switching-Mode Power Supplies", Electronics, vol. 13, issue 15, August 2024 - major contribution from the IFIN R&D team;
  2. LHCb Collaboration, "The LHCb upgrade I", JINST 19 (2024) P05065, arXiv:2305.10515 [hep-ex] - LHCb-Ro contributed with: RICH detector schematics input, RICH commissioning, electronics qualication and testing, radiation-hardness qualification of key RICH electronics including PMD electronics, review of the draft;
  3. M. Bartolini et al. (LHCb-RICH Collaboration), "LHCb RICH Fast-timing photon detection at the SPS charged particle beam" (to be submitted to JINST at end of 2024; published in 2025, see next Grant entry), JINST 20 (2025) P03034 - LHCb-Ro contributed with: data quality checks, designed the TDC key component with 100 ps resolution on FPGA, other PCBs design, review of the draft;
  4. V. M. Placinta, L. N. Cojocariu, F. Maciuc, M. Straticiuc, S. Mattiazzo, L. Silvestrin, A. Candelori, "Measurements of Radiation Effects in an Antifuse FPGA", Nuclear Instr. And Methods in Physics Research, A, vol 1055, no. 168551, Oct. 2023 - most work done by our IFIN-HH team, and we are grateful for the input of the staff from University Padova and LNL Legnaro during irradiation, draft preparation, with key irradiation dosimetry, and letting us use their SIRAD irradiation facility in Legnaro;
  5. L. N. Cojocariu, D. Foulds-Holt, F. Keizer, V. M. Placinta and S. Wotton, "A multi-channel TDC-in-FPGA with 150 ps bins for time-resolved readout of Cherenkov photons", Nuclear Instr. And Methods in Physics Research, A, vol. 1055, no. 168483, Oct. 2023 - major part of work done by our team and we gratefully acknowledge the help from our CERN and Cambridge LHCb-partners during TDC design, data takings, and during the beam test (main/corresponding author from IFIN-HH);
  6. V. M. Placinta, L. N. Cojocariu, and F. Maciuc, "A Dedicated and Versatile System for Testing the Radiation Hardness of Various Integrated Circuit", in Proceedings of Topical Workshop on Electronics for Particle Physics 2022, Journal of Instrumentation, vol. 18, C01053, Jan. 2023.
  7. Major contributions to LHCb paper (LHCb-PAPER-2023-014, CERN-EP-2023-140): "Observation of decays B0(s) to Ds1(2536)+/- plus K-/+" published as JHEP 10 (2023) 106
  8. Major contribution to the LHCb analysis: "Measurement of the $\Omega^{0}_{c}$ and $\Xi^{0}_{c}$ baryon lifetimes using hadronic b-decays", from the LHCb Charm analysis group using fully hadronic B baryon decays: $\Xi^{0}_{c}$ (from $\Xi^{-}_{b} \to \Xi^{0}_{c} \pi^+$) and $\Omega^{0}_{c}$ (from $\Omega^{-}_{b} \to \Omega^{0}_{c} \pi^-$), published as JHEP 09 (2025) 157

Ongoing analyses with potential publications

There are 4 other papers in preparation, with subject ranging from Environment studies to particle beam profile measurements. Two papers are on SiPM characterization in special environments of temperature and radiation. Two papers are prepared by RICH group on test-beam data. We have significant contributions to both papers.

Conference posters and talks at LHCb meeting

  1. Roxana MOCANU, Alexandru JIPA, Florin MACIUC, "Production of Drell-Yan bosons in p-p collisions at sqrt{s}=13 TeV", Bucharest University Faculty of Physics 2024 Meeting, Section: Nuclear and Elementary Particles Physics, 24th of May 2024 - abstract;
  2. V. M. Placinta, L. N. Cojocariu, F. Maciuc and M. Straticiuc, "Single Event Effects and Total Ionizing Dose Sensitivity of a 0.15 μm Antifuse FPGA", The 2023 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference, 3-12 November 2023, IEEE, Vancouver, Canada

Other deliverables

  1. Contribution to LHCb TDRs (Technical Desigrn Reports) LHCb Collaboration, "LHCb Particle Identification Enhancement - Technical Design Report", CERN-LHCC-2023-005, LHCb-TDR-24, CERN 2024, https://cds.cern.ch/record/2866493/files/LHCB-TDR-024.pdf, ISBN 978-92-9083-643-8;
  2. We contributed to two other TDRs which are in preparation for LS4 Upgrade, expected to be finalized in 2026. Next to be released to public is the Scoping document for LS4 Upgrade: "LHCb Upgrade II Scoping Document", CERN-LHCC-2024-010, LHCB-TDR-026, https://cds.cern.ch/record/2903094;
  3. MSc and Bachelor dissertations:
    1. Roxana Mocanu, "Production of Drell-Yan bosons in p-p collisions at Sqrt{s}=13 TeV", MSc. program at Bucharest University;
    2. C.C. Rădulescu,"Dezvoltarea unei platforme electronice cu senzori specializați pentru determinarea nivelului de radon și evaluarea calității mediului din interiorul clădirilor" or in English "Development of an electronic platform with dedicated sensors for measuring the Radon level and to assess indoor air quality" , supervisors Prof.C. Ravariu and Dr. L.N. Cojocariu, thesis defended on June 3rd at National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest;
    3. George Salavarin, "Studiul performanțelor surselor de alimentare în comutație proiectate pentru aplicații cu FPGA destinate mediilor cu radiație" (Study of power sources designed with FPGA and dedicated to radiation-intense environments), supervisors Prof.C. Ravariu and Dr. Vlad Plăcintă, thesis defended on June 3rd at National University of Science and Technology, Politehnica Bucharest;
    4. V. Lupușoru,"Proiectarea și implementarea unui sistem cu fotodiode pentru monitorizarea parametrilor specifici fasciculelor de particule accelerate", in English "Design and development of a system with photodiodes for monitoring the accelerated particle beam parameters", supervisors Prof.C. Ravariu and Dr. L.N. Cojocariu, thesis defended on June 3rd at National University of Science and Technology Politehnica Bucharest.

Patent applications

1. C.C. Radulescu, L.N. Cojocariu, "Platformă multisenzor de monitorizare în timp real pe lunga durată a mediului și fondului natural de radiație din interiorul clădirilor", Eng. "Multi-sensor platform for long term monitoring in real time of indoor environment and natural radiation background", State Office for Invention and Trademarks (OSIM) Romania, patent application no. A/000119/21.03.2024;
2. V. Lupusoru, L.N. Cojocariu, M. Lechintan, "Sistem cu fotodiode pentru monitorizarea în timp real a parametrilor specifici fasciculelor de particule accelerate", Eng. "System with photodiode for real time monitoring of accelerated particles beam parameters", State Office for Invention and Trademarks (OSIM) Romania, patent application no. A/00120/21.03.2024.

HEPData.net entries

There are 10 new entries since 2023 in HEPData.net from LHCb. Now we are mainly driven by need to prepare RIVET plugin for the corresponding applicable measurements.

A complete list of HEPData.net records released for LHCb between Jan. 2022 and Nov. 20, 2024 can be accessed here.

During the 2022-2024 years, there were a few Outreach events organized by our group, and we supported the activity of the main Outreach project from IFA, project dedicated to CERN. One of our team members has acted as a guide in the CERN underground LHCb cavern for a group of Romanian university students, and also during "Romanian High-School Students Internship Programme" in 2023 and 2024, and in "Romanian Teacher Internship Programme 2024". Besides these, we report the following outreach events:

Support Tasks

In 2022, there were LHCb tasks within the Simulation and RICH working groups, and we provided 21 DQCS (Data Quality, Computing and Simulation) shifts, 4 Data Manager shifts, and 12 times Shift Leader for LHCb detector.


Final Report 2022-2024

SUMMARY OF ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS FOR THE LHCb PROJECT
„LHCb, forward particle production, decays of the heavy hadrons, and the detector Upgrade Phases in the HL-LHC era”

This report includes the results and the description of activities done by two research groups during project time frame of 03.01.2022 and 30.09.2024. The two groups are from the Horia Hulubei National Institute for Research and Development in Physics and Nuclear Engineering and University of Suceava. The set of activity done within this project are split in: A. physics analyses, physics theory estimates and models and computing physics; B. research and development (R&D) tasks for the future programs of LHCb RICH subdetectors; C. services provided to the LHCb collaboration, including computing and outreach events organization.

In case of physics data analyses, we highlight the neutral Kaon, KS, and the Λ strange baryon, measurements. Here the differential cross-sections of particle production and the production ratios were obtained for these two strange hadrons in the LHCb acceptance. The LHCb acceptance is split in 6×6=36 elementary cells in rapidity and transverse momentum and the measurement of the cross-section were done for each individual cell. In addition there were checks of Fragmentation functions for the Ks, and Λ from the underlying partons using theoretical estimates. Some large deviations were observed in some cases. We also check the Generator Models to see how good their prediction of these measurements is. The main conclusions of the checking generator estimates, we see imperfect knowledge at low transverse momenta, from 10 MeV to 1 GeV. And the effects are much more drastic for the estimates of the strange baryon production. Hence, these Generator tuning, and fragmentation function estimation would benefit greatly from the measurements we have done at LHCb. This would have an impact over a large community of HEP experiments and many ongoing and future studies, as the slow strange hadrons are possible background for many studies or the hard-pT strange hadron are signals in case of key QCD studies. Besides the strange hadron production analysis, we have an Electro-weak study using the HERWIG and PYTHIA generator data with Drell-Yan production estimates for LO and NLO approximations of the production cross-section. We also investigated the underlying event in these simulated data and estimated the trigger and selection efficiencies for Z0 and flavour production at LHCb. Besides two LHCb analyses notes and subsequent papers, we had two MSc thesis on physics analyses of HEP data, with one Doctoral application which was highly successful with our Doctoral student being admitted with highest score to the Doctoral studies of Physics Faculty from University of Bucharest. The latter Doctoral application is on a hard-QCD study coupled with an underlying (soft-QCD) event study, and the PhD was approved for 4 years starting in from September 2024.

In context of the LHCb Upgrades in the third and fourth Long Shutdowns of LHC accelerator (LS3 and LS4, respectively), we are contributing the LHCb Upgrade R&D program. We have covered the tasks of designing the first and the second digital and carrier board prototypes for LHCb RICH Upgrade in LS3 Upgrade. These prototypes were integrated in Photon Detector Modules (PDMs) and tested at CERN using pions produced through conversion from an SPS (Super Proton Synchrotron) facility at CERN. Test benches were designed for DC-DC power module and other various CERN-developed ASICs: FastIC, picoTDC, and the chip of lpGBT module. There were also some new Data Acquisition units developed to monitor precisely. In the beam tests at SPS done to characterize the PDM prototypes in 2022, the RICH group used an FPGA board developed in Bucharest by the IFIN group. On the FPGA a firmware was developed by the IFIN team to configure a Time to Digital Converter (TDC), which allows time sampling of the Cherenkov photon with 100 pico-second time resolution (approx. 30 pico-second precision). Our contribution was significant for the beam-test in 2023 and 2024 when a FastIC+picoTDC combination was used to replace the FPGA. The IFIN team has already joined the joint efforts of several Detector Physics groups to form a new DRD collaboration: DRD4 - Research and Development for Photon Detectors and Particle identification Techniques. Some of the objectives of DRD4 and LHCb Upgrade program for LS4 are quite similar. As other DRD4 and LHCb teams, our IFIN group is searching for a replacement of the RICH sensors, which in case of LHCb RICH subdetectors are MaPMT the Multi anode Photo-Multiplier Tubes. The idea is to choose a Photon Counter which would allow precise timing of Cherenkov photons at level of few picoseconds. This timing resolution means we can distinguish Cherenkov photons which are produced by particles originating in certain proton-proton collisions, hence allowing to reconstruct in a 4-dimensional space each collision happening in the same LHC bunch-bunch crossing. The new paradigm of the 4D LHCb single arm spectrometer would imply we are able to reconstruct LHC events with even 30 collisions per event. This was never attempted before and would mean the integrated luminosity that LHCb can obtain in HL-LHC era would approach 300 fb-1, almost 6 times more than it was the previous estimate. The higher luminosity could lead LHCb to the indirect discovery of New Physics, which is the main objective of CERN LHC program, and would have long range and lasting impact on the future of humanity.

To select a proper sensor for the 4D RICH, our team has started a testing campaign. A program to test Photon Counters was implemented, and a test bench was designed and constructed. Silicon Photomultipliers SiPMs were tested, including some samples which were previously irradiated at large fluences 1010-1012 1-MeV neutron equivalent per cm2. A precision testing of SiPM characteristics was done for few sensors from different producer. We aim to characterize gain, breakdown voltage, optical and delayed crosstalk, after-pulsing, temperature and irradiation dependence of key sensor characteristics, etc. Our future goal is to reduce by order of magnitude the dark count rate from the SiPM, through a combination of very low temperature (-200 deg Celsius) online runs interspaced with sensor annealing at 100 degrees or more. This would permit operating the SiPM in the expected HL-LHC RICH environment which is estimated to approach 2×1013 1-MeV neutron equivalent. The report submitted to the funding agency includes as examples figures of SiPM signals recorded on oscilloscope, with triggered events of single photon, double-photon, triple-photon and more being visible on the display after a trigger negative pulse recorded on the other oscilloscope channel. Analysis of such events permits extraction of cross-talk and delayed after-pulse events, gain extraction, breakdown voltage determination, etc.

The new LHCb analyses were converted into entries in the HEPData database, with about 13 LHCb measurements being uploaded to the HEPData between 2022-2024, with our team contributions for each. The HEPData and the RIVET plugins for LHCb measurements help theoretical and phenomenologist community to have a simple access to our LHCb data and use it to improve the underlying theory and models. Other services to the LHCb collaboration were: 1. simulation software development and maintenance; 2. shifts and piquets for LHCb detector, its subsystems, or to data quality and grid monitoring; 3. Organization of outreach events for LHCb/HEP/IPPOG; 4. Academic work with students. Three HEP Masterclass events were organized by USV with help from IFIN in these three years. Many other outreach events were organized or supported by both USV and IFIN group in these three years of the LHCb project, and the USV group had a large contributions to LHCb shifts. We have hired six new students, out of which five fully dedicated to the LHCb programs. There were 3 new bachelor theses with topics related to LHCb or derived from them. We had a MSc thesis with subject on Drell-Yan processes, and the student since then joined our group as a Doctoral student. Five summer students had worked in our group for LHCb tasks. The objective within next decade is to have 10 new PhD thesis on LHCb topics. Our group had one national-level patent approved in 2022 and we have submitted two new applications in 2024. The new patent requests are a hadron beam profiler and fluence measurement system based on few large diodes, and the second patent was requested for a Multi-sensor platform which does a monitoring of the indoor environment and natural radiation background. The latter has 16 sensors with many measuring electromagnetic, vibrational, acoustic, gaseous, and dust/particle pollution together with gamma and alpha decays from natural radioactive sources like Radon. This device has readout electronics which is quite similar to the electronics implemented in the LHCb electronics which were designed by our group. This shows to what degree the HEP knowhow and the developed HEP infrastructure can be used in application of interest to the whole society. The sensors are important from health, ecologic and radiological point of view, as all these factors, i.e. pollution and Radon excess, can affect the health of a large fraction of population and lead to early death. The next level of these application is to find mitigation like particle/dust filters, and automatic ventilation systems. We already had some progress in this direction.

A more complete final report was sent to the funding agency. This report includes also several example of results in graphic form, several of which are in process of being integrated in papers (including collaboration papers), and, thus, cannot be made publicly available (before journal publication).