LHCb Upgrade: Beyond The Energy Frontier

A particle detector at CERN is being rebuilt to catch rare subatomic decays that could reveal new laws of physics. The LHCb experiment already holds the world’s best measurements of matter–antimatter asymmetry—the imbalance that explains why our universe contains matter at all. But the Standard Model of particle physics cannot fully account for this asymmetry, nor for the existence of dark matter. By upgrading the Vertex Locator (VELO) and the Ring Imaging Cherenkov particle identification system, the UK team will dramatically increase the experiment’s sensitivity to rare decays of beauty and charm quarks. If the upgraded detector finds deviations from Standard Model predictions, it would point directly to new fundamental particles or forces. This is fundamental science: it will not produce a practical application tomorrow. But past investments in particle physics have given us the World Wide Web, medical imaging (PET scanners), and the proton therapy beams now used to treat cancer. A deeper understanding of matter–antimatter asymmetry could, in the long run, reshape how we think about the origin of the universe itself.