Study of the production of Λ_b^0 band ~0 hadrons in pp collisions and first measurement of the Λ_b^0→J/ψpK^- branching fraction

The product of the ∧0/b （-B/0） differential production cross-section and the branching fraction of the decay ∧0/b→ J/ψ pK-（-B/0→ J/ψ-K＊（892）0）is measured as a function of the beauty hadron transverse momentum, PT, and rapidity, y. The kinematic region of the measurements is pT〈20 GeV/c and 2.0 〈g〈4.5.The measurements use a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3fb-1 collected by the LHCb detector in pp collisions at centre-of-mass energies √s=7 TeV in 2011 and √s=8 TeV in 2012. Based on previous LHCb results of the fragmentation fraction ratio,f∧0/b/fd,the branching fraction of the decay ∧0/b→ J/ψ pK-is measured to be B（∧0/b→ J/ψ pK-）=（3.17±0.04±0.07±0.34＋0.45/-0.28）×10-4,where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second is systematic, the third is due to the uncertainty on the branching fraction of the decay -B/0 →J/ψ-K＊（892）0,and the fourth is due to the knowledge of f∧0/b/fd.The sum of the asymmetries in the production and decay between ∧0/b and ∧0/bis also measured as a function of PT and y.The previously published branching fraction of ∧0/b→ J/ψ pπ-,relative to that of ∧0/b→ J/ψ pK-,is updated. The branching fractions of ∧0/b→P＋c（→ J/ψp）K-are determined.