The Compressed Baryonic Matter experiment at the future accelerator facility in Darmstadt

At the future Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research in Darmstadt (FAIR) a dedicated heavy-ion experiment investigating the properties of highly compressed baryonic matter is proposed (CBM). Its goal will be to explore the QCD phase diagram in the region of moderate temperatures but very high baryon densities. Physics objectives, their experimental challenge, the resulting layout of the CBM detector, and first feasibility studies of key observables are discussed.