Charming beauty: CP violation and spectroscopy at LHCb
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Glasgow
Department Name: School of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Why are the earth, the stars, our galaxy and everything we can see made out of matter? During the big bang, matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts, so where has the antimatter gone? There is no evidence of anti-matter galaxies or other large structures in the universe. These questions lead to a more profound question, given that the matter and antimatter should have destroyed each other; why are we here? These questions have fascinated me since my late teens and were responsible for guiding me into the field of physics and later specialising in particle physics. My career to date has focused on understanding differences between matter and antimatter, which are (almost) perfect mirror images of the other. The programme of research in this proposal aims to study these differences more precisely than ever before, and to look for new differences that are not explained by our current theories and models. In fact, we already know our theories are not a complete description of everything in the universe, and several hints have appeared recently in this field of particle physics. This research plan will provide new inputs to understand whether or not these hints are real effects of just statistical fluctuations. To achieve these goals, the equally exciting challenges of dealing with huge data samples and utilising the latest computing technologies and software must be conquered. These challenges are increasingly common and important in many fields of science, but also to businesses and the wider world.
I will perform these exciting measurements using data from the LHCb detector, based on the large hadron collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory on the French-Swiss border near Geneva. The LHC collides particles, called protons, at incredible energies to produce other particles that we are interested in studying.
I will perform these exciting measurements using data from the LHCb detector, based on the large hadron collider (LHC) at the CERN laboratory on the French-Swiss border near Geneva. The LHC collides particles, called protons, at incredible energies to produce other particles that we are interested in studying.
Publications
Aaij R
(2023)
Search for $$D^{*}(2007)^{0} \rightarrow \mu ^{+} \mu ^{-}$$ in $$B^{-}\rightarrow \pi ^{-} \mu ^{+} \mu ^{-}$$ decays
in The European Physical Journal C
Description | Lord Kelvin/Adam Smith Fellowship |
Amount | £100,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | University of Glasgow |
Sector | Academic/University |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 01/2022 |
End | 02/2025 |
Description | Joined the HFLAV collaboration |
Organisation | Heavy Flavor Averaging Group |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | I was invited to join the HFLAV collaboration during the summer of 2022, given my expertise in Beauty physics and to represent the LHCb collaboration. I have started adding new LHCb results to their repositories and will be involved in the next publication of world-averaged results at the end of the year. |
Collaborator Contribution | They provide all of the software and tools for performing the world-average results. My job is to keep everything up to date and re-run the tools when changes are required for new publications |
Impact | Scientific publications to follow bi-yearly with myself as a leading author. |
Start Year | 2022 |
Description | Article for the famous CERN courier publication |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Other audiences |
Results and Impact | The article in the CERN courier reaches thousands of particle physics researchers and more generally the public, undergraduate and postgraduate students. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
URL | https://cerncourier.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/CERNCourier2022JanFeb-digitaledition.pdf |