Searching for Physics Beyond the Standard Model at the LHCb Experiment

探索新的自然界基本相互作用是实验粒子物理学的核心。当前的粒子物理标准模型在描述当前的测量方面取得了巨大的成功，但它是一个不完整的理论。在瑞士日内瓦附近的欧洲核子研究中心运行的大型强子对撞机(LHC)上的所有实验都集中在标准模型以外的发现上。该项目和大型强子对撞机实验作为一个整体，通过对大型强子对撞机产生的粒子衰变进行精确测量，寻求新的发现。这些测量旨在回答可以追溯到大爆炸的问题，例如，为什么我们的宇宙由物质而不是反物质主导？或者什么是暗物质？暗物质的存在是从其引力相互作用的影响中推断出来的；然而，人们对暗物质本身知之甚少。暗物质可能通过未知的力量相互作用，这促使全球范围内致力于寻找这种相互作用。发现和表征暗物质粒子及其相互作用对于推进对宇宙基本性质的科学理解至关重要，该奖项的工作可能在LHCb实验中取得突破性发现。许多引人注目的暗扇区作用力场景预测了在欧洲核子研究中心大型强子对撞机(LHC)的LHCb实验中可以观察到的粒子的存在，例如所谓的隐藏扇区理论。这些理论预测了暗物质和标准模型粒子(如暗光子)之间的混合。发现这样的粒子将为人类提供了解黑暗部分粒子性质的第一扇窗。这笔赠款支持LHCb专注于寻找暗扇区力量和暗物质粒子的开创性工作。重点将放在B夸克的特殊衰变上，LHCB实验的目的是测量B夸克的衰变，由于涉及b夸克到S夸克跃迁的衰变通道，这些衰变增强了对暗粒子的敏感性。

The search for new fundamental interactions of nature is at the heart of experimental particle physics. The current Standard Model of particle physics has been enormously successful at describing current measurements, but it is an incomplete theory. All of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) operating at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland are focused on discoveries beyond the Standard Model. This project and the LHCb experiment as a whole seek new discoveries through precision measurements of particle decays produced at the LHC. These measurements aim to answer questions stretching back to the Big Bang, such as, why is our universe dominated by matter and not antimatter? Or what is Dark Matter? The existence of dark matter has been inferred from the effects of its gravitational interactions; however, little is known about the dark sector itself. The possibility that dark matter may interact via as-yet-unknown forces has motivated a dedicated worldwide effort to search for these interactions. Discovering and characterizing dark matter particles and their interactions is vital to advancing scientific understanding of the fundamental nature of the universe and the work from this award could make a break-through discovery at the LHCb experiment. Many compelling dark-sector force scenarios predict the existence of particles that could be observed at the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, such as the so-called hidden-sector theories. These theories predict a mixing between dark matter and the Standard Model particles such as the dark photon. Discovering such particles would provide humankind with its first window into the particle nature of the dark sector. This grant supports pioneering work focused on searching for dark-sector forces and dark-matter particles at LHCb. The focus will be on particular decays of B quarks, which the LHCb experiment was designed to measure, that have enhanced sensitivity to dark particles because of the decay channels involving b quark to s quark transition.