Search for Higgs-like bosons decaying into long-lived exotic particles

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for long-lived particles decaying into exotic states, using LHCb data, setting limits on their production without observing a significant signal.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search for Higgs-like bosons decaying into long-lived particles within specific mass and lifetime ranges, providing new constraints.

Findings

No excess observed above background

Limits set on production cross-section

Constraints on long-lived particle properties

Abstract

A search is presented for massive long-lived particles, in the 20-60 GeV mass range with lifetimes between 5 and 100 ps. The dataset used corresponds to 0.62 1\fb of proton-proton collision data collected by the LHCb detector at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The particles are assumed to be pair-produced by the decay of a Higgs-like boson with mass between 80 and 140 GeV. No excess above the background expectation is observed and limits are set on the production cross-section as a function of the long-lived particle mass and lifetime and of the Higgs-like boson mass.