Long term performance studies of the silicon strip detectors of the LHCb Silicon Tracker

LHCb is one of the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It is dedicated to B-physics and CP-violation measurements. To fully exploit its physics potential, a good tracking performance with high efficiency in the high particle density environment close to the beam pipe is required. For this purpose, the LHCb Silicon Tracker uses strip detectors with large read-out pitch and long strips. We give a summary of the R&D program of the Silicon Tracker and of performance studies for the long term operation in the LHC radiation environment.