CP violation in the quark sector
I am a graduate student studying for a Doctor of Philosophy in Particle Physics. Informally I go by the nickname George.
I analyse data from the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN to perform measurements of the CKM angle, $\gamma$. Phenomenologically, $\gamma$ is, up to a small correction, the complex phase of the CKM matrix that gives rise to $C\!P$ violation in the quark sector of the Standard Model of particle physics.
If all the processes in the Universe conserved $C\!P$, then matter and antimatter would be present in equal amounts. In contrast, observations demonstrate that matter in the Universe greatly exceeds antimatter. The Standard Model predicts that the complex phase in the CKM matrix is the only mechanism that causes $C\!P$ violation in our Universe, which is not sufficient to explain the extent of matter-antimatter asymmetry seen. Mechanisms beyond the Standard Model that could supplement this are being explored and measured --- for example $C\!P$ violation arising from neutrino oscillations; yet taking into account of the standard model contribution of the matter-antimatter symmetry is nevertheless key to our understanding of this problem.
In addition, I work on the calibration of the ring-imaging Cherenkov detectors, which are crucial components of the LHCb experiment.