Abstract:
The field of high energy physics has entered a new and exciting era, with the first collisions recorded at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the end of 2009. Among the measurements that will be possible with early data, the study of b-quark production and decay is one of the most important. The b quark is a key ingredient in many aspects of LHC physics, both as a signature for new particles, and as background in a wide range of processes in and beyond the Standard Model. In this seminar, I will present the plans of the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the LHC for the study of b-quark production using the expected data from the physics run starting in February, with emphasis on the opportunities for detector studies that such measurements offer. I will close with some considerations on the longterm prospects of using the b-bbar final state to search for a low-mass Standard Model Higgs.