LHCb status and charm physics program

LHCb is a dedicated flavor physics experiment that will observe the 14 Tev proton proton collisions at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Construction of the LHCb detector is near completion, commissioning of the detector is well underway, and LHCb will be fully operational and ready to take data in advance of the projected May 2008 turn-on date for the LHC. The LHCb software trigger will feature a dedicated channel for events containing $D^*$ mesons that will dramatically enhance the statistical reach of LHCb in many charm physics measurements. The LHCb charm physics program is initially focused on mixing and CP violation measurements in two body decay modes of $D^0$. A much broader program is possible and will be explored as manpower allows. We intend to use both promptly produced charm and secondary charm from $B$ meson decays in measurements. Initial studies indicate that LHCb may obtain a statistical precision of $\sigma_{stat}(x’^{2}) = \pm$ 0.064 x 10$^{-3}$ and $\sigma_{stat} (y’) = \pm$ 0.87 x 10$^{-3}$ from a time dependent mixing analysis of wrong sign two body $D^0 \pi^{-}K^{+}$ decays and a statistical precision of $\sigma_{stat}(y_{\rm{CP}}) = \pm$ 0.5 x 10$^{-3}$ from a ratio of the lifetimes of $D^0$ decays to the final states $K^- K^+$ and $K^-\pi^+$ in 10 fb$^{-1}$ of data.