The LHCb experiment at CERN
Exploring the early universe
At the Big Bang, some 14 billion years ago,
particles of matter and antimatter were created in
equal quantities. Just seconds after, all the antimatter had disappeared. Where did it go and why?
At CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC),
proton beams collide at very high energy,
recreating the conditions shortly after the
Big Bang. By studying the particles and
antiparticles created during these collisions,
physicists hope to find answers
to such questions.
For more information:
http://www.cern.ch/lhcb-public
The LHCb experiment at CERN
b is for beauty
Although absent from the world about us,
particles known as beauty mesons were common
in the aftermath of the Big Bang. Today they are
generated in their billions by the LHC, along with
their antimatter counterparts, anti-beauty hadrons.
These b and anti-b hadrons are unstable and
short-lived, decaying rapidly into sprays of other
particles. The LHCb experiment studies the tiny
differences between the two species, to gain more
insight into why nature prefers matter
over antimatter.
For more information:
http://www.cern.ch/lhcb-public
The LHCb experiment at CERN
An international collaboration
Some 700 scientists from 52 universities and
laboratories around the world are involved in the LHCb experiment,
with support from several hundreds of
technicians and engineers. Many parts of LHCb were conceived and
constructed at university laboratories
before being brought together at the CERN site.
Postgraduate students from all of the 52 universities in the collaboration
contribute to the experiment.
Become part of the adventure – look at the web-site
to find out how you can get involved!
http://www.cern.ch/lhcb-public/en/collaboration/