HERA-B: physics potential and prospects

HERA-B is a hadroproduction experiment located at DESY in Hamburg, Germany. The experiment produces B mesons and baryons by inserting thin wire targets into the halo of the proton beam circulating in the HERA storage ring. The B decays are studied to search for evidence of CP violation and constrain the angle β and possibly γ and α of the CKM unitarity triangle. The experiment also produces Bs mesons; these decays are studied to measure or constrain the mass difference Δms and width difference ΔΓs between the two Bs0/B̄s0 mass eigenstates. Finally, the large number of Bʹs produced allows HERA-B to search for rare and forbidden decays such as B→K(∗)l1+l2−. The experiment is scheduled to begin running in early 2000.