The LHCb experiment at UZH

The LHCb experiment is one of the four large experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN in Geneva. The main goal of the experiment is to challenge the Standard Model of particle physics by performing precise measurements of CP violating observables and rare decays of b hadrons (particles containing a beauty quark).

Our group is involved in a number of analyses that aim to test Lepton Flavour Universality (LFU),  a fundamental property of the Standard Model of Particle Physics. In simple terms, LFU implies that the Standard Model treats the three charged leptons (electrons, muons and taus) identically, except for differences due to their different masses.

Our group has also made important contributions to the LHCb detector that we used to collect the data from which these intriguing results were extracted. We are involved in the preparation of a major upgrade of the detector, which should allow to collect data with higher rate and improved efficiency when the LHC restarts in 2022 . We also participate in studies towards a second comprehensive upgrade of the LHCb detector,.

Currently, our group consists of five senior scientists, eight postdoctoral researchers and seven PhD students. As of March 2023, nineteen PhDs, fifteen masters and eleven bachelor theses have been completed in our group. Would you like to be part of our group? Have a look at the open positions and possible topics for master or bachelor theses.