Title: LHcb as a fixed target and heavy-ion experiment at cERN
Speaker: Saverio Mariani, cERN, Staff
Time:Sep.24,2025 9:00am-10:00am
Location: Physics Building W260
Host: Xianglei ZHU, Associate professor zhuxCtsinghua.edu.cn
Abstract:
The LHCb experiment at CERN is a single-arm forward spectrometer covering thepseudorapidity region between 2 and 5,not accessible with full instrumentation by the otherexperiments operating at the LHC accelerator.Despite initially designed for the study ofheavy-flavour hadrons,the LHCb physics programme encompasses now among othersunique studies for nuclei and nucleon imaging,medium effects characterization,and evenmeasurements relevant for astrophysics.Uniquely among the LHC experiments,LHCb is alsoequipped with a System for Measuring Overlap with Gas(SMOG),enabling the injection ofgas into the LHC accelerator beam-pipe and the LHCb operations in fixed-target mode at thehighest available energies.Since 2022,LHCb is working with two independent andsimultaneous interaction point,acquiring rich and diverse beam-gas and beam-beam sample.In this seminar,recent results from the LHCb ion and fixed-target programme are reviewed,together with the implications on theoretical models.In particular,the first result obtainedfrom the analysis of the 2024 lead-gas data,confirming the major effect the initial-stategeometry has on the evolution dynamics of intermediate-size systems,will be discussed.
Introduction of the speaker:
Got my PhD in 2022 at Florence University and INFN with a thesis on "Fixed-target physics atLHCb",awarded with "best thesis"prizes in LHCb and by the Italian INFN.Selected for afellow and then a staff position at CERN.Main actor for the SMOG programme at LHCb,responsible of its operations between 2022 and 2024,and convening the "Ions and Fixed-target"LHCb working group between 2023 and 2025.I am now organising activities withingthe "Physics Beyond Collider LHC fixed-target WG",a forum where new initiatives to exploitLHC in fixed-target mode are discussed.I am also reconstruction and trigger expert,currentlyconvening the "RTA WP2 Reconstruction WG".
