CBM at FAIR: Status, Physics Performance, and Prospects for Λ Polarization Measurements

The Compressed Baryonic Matter (CBM) experiment at FAIR is designed to explore the QCD phase diagram at high baryochemical potentials and moderate temperatures, using heavy-ion collisions at s N N = 2.7 – 4.9 GeV (Au+Au) and interaction rates of up to 10 MHz. Its fast, radiation-hard detector systems and free-streaming, trigger-less data-acquisition scheme will enable high-precision measurements of multi-strange hadrons, hypernuclei, dileptons and event-by-event fluctuations. The status of the CBM setup and selected physics performance results from full-system simulations are summarized. The projected statistical precision for a measurement of the global polarization of Λ hyperons, sensitive to the vortical structure of baryon-rich QCD matter, is discussed.