Abstract: Long-lived particles (LLPs) show up in many extensions of the Standard Model, but they are challenging to search for with current detectors, due to their very displaced vertices. This study evaluated the ability of the trigger algorithms used in the Large Hadron Collider beauty (LHCb) experiment to detect long-lived particles and attempted to adapt them to enhance the sensitivity of this experiment to undiscovered long-lived particles. A model with a Higgs portal to a dark sector is tested, and the sensitivity reach is discussed. In the LHCb tracking system, the farthest tracking station from the collision point is the scintillating fiber tracker, the SciFi detector. One of the challenges in the track reconstruction is to deal with the large amount of and combinatorics of hits in the LHCb detector. A dedicated algorithm has been developed to cope with the large data output. When fully implemented, this algorithm would greatly increase the available statistics for any long-lived particle search in the forward region and would additionally improve the sensitivity of analyses dealing with Standard Model particles of large lifetime, such as KS0 or Lambda (0) hadrons.

Abstract: A search for the lepton-flavour violating decays B-0 -> K-*0 μe(-/+) and B-s(0)-> mu(+/-)e(-/+) is presented, using proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb(-1). No significant signals are observed and upper limits of are set at 90% (95%) confidence level. These results constitute the world's most stringent limits to date, with the limit on the decay B-s(0) -> phi mu(+/-) e(-/+) the first being set. In addition, limits are reported for scalar and left-handed lepton-flavour violating New Physics scenarios.

Abstract: We report on a measurement of the Lambda(+)(c) to D-0 production ratio in peripheral PbPb collisions at root sNN = 5.02TeV with the LHCb detector in the forward rapidity region 2 < y < 4.5. The Lambda(+)(c) (D-0) hadrons are reconstructed via the decay channel Lambda(+)(c) -> pK(-)pi(+) (D-0 -> K- pi(+)) for 2 < pT < 8 GeV/ c and in the centrality range of about 65-90%. The results show no significant dependence on pT, y or the mean number of participating nucleons. They are also consistent with similar measurements obtained by the LHCb collaboration in pPb and Pbp collisions at root sNN = 5.02TeV. The data agree well with predictions from PYTHIA in pp collisions at root s = 5TeV but are in tension with predictions of the Statistical Hadronization model.

Abstract: A first search for the lepton-flavour violating decays B-0 -> K*0 tau(+/-)mu -/+ is presented. The analysis is performed using a sample of proton-proton collision data, collected with the LHCb detector at centre-of-mass energies of 7, 8 and 13TeV between 2011 and 2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9 fb(-1). No significant signal is observed, and upper limits on the branching fractions are determined to be B(B-0 -> K*0 tau(+)mu(-)) < 1.0 (1.2) x 10(-5) and B(B-0 -> K*0 tau(-)mu(+)) < 8.2 (9.8) x 10(-6) at the 90% (95%) confidence level.

Abstract: This article presents the first measurement of the differential Z-boson production cross-section in the forward region using proton-lead collisions with the LHCb detector. The dataset was collected at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of root(NN)-N-s = 8.16TeV in 2016, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 30.8 nb(-1). The forward-backward ratio and the nuclear modification factors are measured together with the differential crosssection as functions of the Z boson rapidity in the centre-of-mass frame, the transverse momentum of the Z boson and a geometric variable phi*. The results are in good agreement with the predictions from nuclear parton distribution functions, providing strong constraining power at small Bjorken-x.