Heavy-quark opportunities and challenges at FCC-ee

Abstract

The abundant production of beauty and charm hadrons in the $5 \times 10^{12}$ $Z^0$ decays expected at FCC-ee offers outstanding opportunities in flavour physics that in general exceed those available at Belle II, and are complementary to the heavy-flavour programme of the LHC. A wide range of measurements will be possible in heavy-flavour spectroscopy, rare decays of heavy-flavoured particles and $C\!P$-violation studies, which will benefit from the low-background experimental environment, the high Lorentz boost, and the availability of the full spectrum of hadron species. This essay first surveys the important questions in heavy-flavour physics, and assesses the likely theoretical and experimental landscape at the turn-on of FCC-ee. From this certain measurements are identified where the impact of FCC-ee will be particularly important. A full exploitation of the heavy-flavour potential of FCC-ee places specific constraints and challenges on detector design, which in some cases are in tension with those imposed by the other physics goals of the facility. These requirements and conflicts are discussed.