(Taken from IGFAE)

CODEX-b    COmpact Detector for EXotic at LHCb

Long-Lived Particles (LLP) are a type of especially elusive particles predicted in various theoretical models that go beyond the current Standard Model and that could now be one step closer to being detected thanks to a CODEX-b, a project co-lead by the Galician Institute of High Energy Physics (IGFAE), a joint center of the Xunta de Galicia and the University of Santiago (USC).

CODEX-b is a detector proposed to be installed alongside the LHCb experiment, one of the LHC’s gigantic particle detectors, to find LLPs. When the protons collide in the accelerator, the LLPs “fly” between a few millimeters and several meters before disappearing, out of range of existing detectors that are unable to capture them and reconstruct their trajectory. As a preliminary to CODEX-b, the team is already building the CODEX-beta demonstrator, a smaller and cheaper version of the experiment that is expected to be completed in the next two years. Its goal will be to measure backgrounds, do preliminary analysis, and demonstrate that CODEX-b detection technology is feasible.

CODEX-b is one of the most promising proposals to find LLP or discard its existence in the next 10 years. Discovering a long-lived particle would change our most fundamental concept of nature, and would link directly to some of the most important questions in physics today: What is the origin of our Universe? How can we explain its current composition?