LHCb
LHCb is a detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Its primary aim is to study differences between matter and antimatter (termed CP violation) in decays of beauty and charm hadrons . The level of CP violation provided by the Standard Model does not predict a large enough difference to explain why our universe is dominated by matter. LHCb aims to find new sources of CP violation that would be unambiguous signs of New Physics.
The Edinburgh group takes an active role both in the analysis of data collected by the experiment and detector development and operation. The LHCb experiment has recently undergone a substantial upgrade to allow operation with a higher rate of proton-proton collisions with improved performance. The Edinburgh group is involved both in the design of the upgraded Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detector and studies of the performance of the upgraded LHCb detector as a whole. In addition, the group is undertaking new activities for a future upgrade of the detector for operation in the late 2020s and 2030s. The group’s activities are led by Prof Franz Muheim.
Physics analysis
We are leading a wide range of analyses throughout the LHCb collaboration.
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Measurement of CP violation in the golden decay mode Bs → J/ψ φ, which is one of the roadmap measurements for the LHCb experiment.
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Measurements of CP violation and T violation in b→s loop transitions ('charmless b-decays') such as Bs → φφ and Bs → f(980)φ.
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Investigations of the Bs meson through lifetime measurements in CP-eigenstate final states.
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CKM parameter measurements using semi-leptonic decays of B-hadrons.
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Studies of exotic hadrons such as the X(3872), which is a candidate bound state of four quarks, a tetraquark. We are also leading searches for new bound states of five quarks, pentaquarks.
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Studies of the properties of the charm sector, including characterisation of CP violation in charm mesons - which was observed for the first time in 2019 at LHCb - and searches for new charm hadrons.
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High-precision measurements of the electroweak sector, testing the validity of the Standard Model.
The latest exciting results from the LHCb experiment can be found on the LHCb public page.
Detector development and operation
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LHCb Edinburgh has played an active role in the development of the RICH detector since before the LHC began the main data taking in 2010. During LHC data-taking, the Edinburgh group is involved in the continuous operation of the RICH. For the LHCb upgrade we performed R+D for the new MaPMT photon detectors, leading Quality Assurance testing of these devices.
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Edinburgh also plays a central role in preparation for a future upgrade of the LHCb experiment, leading efforts on the RICH, TORCH and Mighty Tracker detectors.
PhD project opportunities in LHCb
People in LHCb
Telephone numbers in the list below are shown as UK numbers. Callers from outside the UK should remove the leading zero and use the UK country code (+44).
| Name | Position | Contact details | Location | Photo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academic staff | ||||
| William Barter | UKRI Future Leaders Fellow | william.barter [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3415 |  |
| Peter Clarke | Professor | peter.clarke [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3421 |  |
| Silvia Gambetta | Lecturer | silvia.gambetta [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3411 | |
| Franz Muheim | Professor | f.muheim [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3410 |  |
| Matthew Needham | Professor | matthew.needham [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3401 | |
| Mark Williams | Royal Society University Research Fellow | m.williams [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3409 |  |
| Research staff | ||||
| Federico Betti | Postdoctoral Research Associate on the LHCb experiment | federico.betti [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB | |
| Emma Buchanan | PDRA on Silicon Detector Development | Emma.Buchanan [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3422 | |
| Robert Currie | GridPP Site Administrator / Group Computing Expert / Software Architect | rob.currie [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3406 | |
| Stephan Eisenhardt | Senior Research Fellow | s.eisenhardt [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3412 |  |
| Prasanth Krishnan Kodassery Padmalayammadam | Postdoctoral Research Associate on the LHCb Experiment | prasanth.krishnan [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 4310 | |
| Lais Soares Lavra | Postdoctoral Research Associate on the LHCb experiment | lais.soares.lavra [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3422 | |
| Federica Oliva | Postdoctoral Research Associate | foliva [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3422 | |
| Research postgraduates | ||||
| Abhishek Bohare | Postgraduate Student | A.Bohare [at] sms.ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3305 | |
| Keira Farmer | Postgraduate Student | keira.farmer [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB | |
| Michael Kane | Postgraduate Student | m.j.kane [at] sms.ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3305 | |
| Yiming Liu | Postgraduate Student | Y.Liu-293 [at] sms.ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3305 | |
| Mary Richardson-Slipper | Postgraduate Student | m.richardson-slipper [at] ed.ac.uk | JCMB 5302 | |
| Alexander Thomson-Strong | Postgraduate Student | A.Thomson-Strong [at] sms.ed.ac.uk | JCMB 3305 | |