LHCb YETS 2018
LHCb YETS 2018 (Image: CERN)

The Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment specializes in investigating the slight differences between matter and antimatter by studying a type of particle called the "beauty quark", or "b quark".

Instead of surrounding the entire collision point with an enclosed detector as do ATLAS and CMS, the LHCb experiment uses a series of subdetectors to detect mainly forward particles – those thrown forwards by the collision in one direction. The first subdetector is mounted close to the collision point, with the others following one behind the other over a length of 20 metres.

An abundance of different quark types are created by the LHC before they decay quickly into other forms. To catch the b quarks, LHCb has developed sophisticated movable tracking detectors close to the path of the beams circling in the LHC.

The 5600-tonne LHCb detector is made up of a forward spectrometer and planar detectors. It is 21 metres long, 10 metres high and 13 metres wide, and sits 100 metres below ground near the town of Ferney-Voltaire, France. About 1565 scientists, engineers and technicians from 20 countries make up the LHCb collaboration (March 2022). For the latest information, see here.

2022,LHCb
Click the image above to explore the LHCb experiment through Google Street View (Image: CERN)