ExploringMatter ERC CoG Project

Exploring Matter with Precision Charm and Beauty Production Measurements in Heavy Nuclei Collisions at LHCb

ExploringMatter is an ERC (EUROPEAN RESEARCH COUNCIL) consolidator grant project funded in 2015 for the duration of 60 months, extended to 75 and 1,9 M euros. The project aims at using the LHCb detector at CERN to study collisions of heavy nuclei to explore new kinematic regions in order to study the new state of matter called Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). The project will use mainly the analysis of the production of charm and beauty particles and their behaviour after production, as this will be affected by the presence of QGP.

The LHCb detector at CERN is a fantastic place where perform these studies as it has a distinctive kinematic coverage in the forward region of rapidity, unprecedented precision in momentum and mass resolution, and the unique possibility to collect data in three different setups, collisions of protons with protons, with heavy nuclei like lead, and with noble gases like Argon. In addition, LHCb also collects the collisions of lead nuclei head-on as provided by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN for three weeks per year. These variety of collisions systems and thus energies puts LHCb in an excellent position to study heavy ion physics with the best precision.