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: Using a proton-proton collision data sample collected by the LHCb experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.5 fb(-1), the observation of a new excited Xi(0)(b) resonance decaying to the Xi(-)(b)pi(+) final state is presented. The state, referred to as Xi(b) (6227)(0), has a measured mass and natural width of m(Xi(b)(6227)(0)) = 6227.1(-1.5)(+1.4) +/- 0.5 MeV and Gamma(Xi(b)(6227)(0)) = 18.6(-4.1)(+5.0) +/- 1.4 MeV, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic. The production rate of the Xi(b)(6227)(0) state relative to that of the Xi(-)(b) baryon in the kinematic region 2 < eta < 5 and p(T) < 30 GeV is measured to be f(Xi b(6227)0)/f(Xi b)(-) B(Xi(b)(6227)(0) -> Xi(-)(b)pi(+)) = 0.045 +/- 0.008 +/- 0.004, where B(Xi(b)(6227)(0) -> Xi(-)(b)pi(+)) is the branching fraction of the decay, and f(Xi b(6227)0) and f(Xi b-) represent fragmentation fractions. Improved measurements of the mass and natural width of the previously observedf Xi(b)(6227)(-) state, along with the mass of the Xi(-)(b) baryon, are also reported. Both measurements are significantly more precise than, and consistent with, previously reported values.

Abstract: The first observation of the suppressed semileptonic B-s(0) -> K-mu(+)nu(mu) decay is reported. Using a data sample recorded in pp collisions in 2012 with the LHCb detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb(-1), the branching fraction B(B-s(0) -> K-mu(+)nu(mu)) is measured to be [1.06 +/- 0.05(stat) +/- 0.08(syst)] x 10(-4), where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second one represents the combined systematic uncertainties. The decay B-s(0) -> D-s(-)mu(+)nu(mu), where D-s(-) is reconstructed in the final state K+K-pi(-), is used as a normalization channel to minimize the experimental systematic uncertainty. Theoretical calculations on the form factors of the B-s(0) -> K- and B-s(0) -> D-s(-) transitions are employed to determine the ratio of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements vertical bar V-ub vertical bar/vertical bar V-cb vertical bar at low and high B-s(0) -> K- momentum transfer.

Abstract: The inclusive b (b) over bar- and c (c) over bar -dijet production cross-sections in the forward region of pp collisions are measured using a data sample collected with the LHCb detector at a centre-of-mass energy of 13TeV in 2016. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.6 fb(-1). Differential cross-sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum and of the pseudorapidity of the leading jet, of the rapidity difference between the jets, and of the dijet invariant mass. A fiducial region for the measurement is defined by requiring that the two jets originating from the two b or c quarks are emitted with transverse momentum greater than 20 GeV/c, pseudorapidity in the range 2.2 < eta < 4.2, and with a difference in the azimuthal angle between the two jets greater than 1.5. The integrated b (b) over bar -dijet cross-section is measured to be 53.0 +/- 9.7 nb, and the total c (c) over bar -dijet cross-section is measured to be 73 +/- 16 nb. The ratio between c (c) over bar- and b (b) over bar -dijet cross-sections is also measured and found to be 1.37 +/- 0.27. The results are in agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-leading order.

Abstract: The production of chi(c1)(3872) and psi(2S) hadrons is studied as a function of charged particle multiplicity in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb(-1). For both states, the fraction that is produced promptly at the collision vertex is found to decrease as charged particle multiplicity increases. The ratio of chi(c1) (3872) to psi(2S) cross sections for promptly produced particles is also found to decrease with multiplicity, while no significant dependence on multiplicity is observed for the equivalent ratio of particles produced away from the collision vertex in b-hadron decays. This behavior is consistent with a calculation that models the chi(c1) (3872) structure as a compact tetraquark. Comparisons with model calculations and implications for the binding energy of the chi(c1)(3872) state are discussed.