Asymmetry observed between matter and antimatter

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator, designed to produce high energy collisions between protons which mimic the conditions of the early universe. One question that this research aims to resolve is the asymmetry observed between matter and antimatter (CP asymmetry).

The LHCb detector is designed to study particle physics processes involving "beauty" quarks and their antimatter counterparts, using the LHC. Before run 3 of the LHC, which began taking data in 2023, LHCb upgrade I was implemented. Because of this upgrade, the experiment is now able to collect data at a rate which is greater than before by an order of magnitude. The result of this is that CP asymmetry can be studied with substantially greater precision than ever before.

The focus of this project is on the decay of the B0s meson into two phi mesons. Through loop induced corrections, it is possible that new physics beyond the standard model could contribute to this process. By analysing the new data from LHC run 3 I will contribute to performing a measurement of the CP asymmetry in this decay and test theoretical predictions of new physics.