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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 K S 0 or Λ 0 hadrons. 

Measurements are presented of the cross-section for the central exclusive production ofJ/\psi\to\mu^+\mu^- $J/\psi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$and\psi(2S)\to\mu^+\mu^- $\psi \left(2S\right)\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}$processes in proton-proton collisions at\sqrt{s} = 13 \ \mathrm{TeV} $\sqrt{s}=13TeV$with 2016–2018 data. They are performed by requiring both muons to be in the LHCb acceptance (with pseudorapidity2<\eta_{\mu^±} < 4.5 $2<{\eta }_{{\mu }^{\pm }}<4.5$) and mesons in the rapidity range2.0 < y < 4.5 $2.0<y<4.5$. The integrated cross-section results are\sigma_{J/\psi\to\mu^+\mu^-}(2.0 ${\sigma }_{J/\psi \to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}}(2.0<y_{J/\psi }<4.5,2.0<{\eta }_{{\mu }^{\pm }}<4.5)=400\pm 2\pm 5\pm 12pb,{\sigma }_{\psi \left(2S\right)\to {\mu }^{+}{\mu }^{-}}(2.0<y_{\psi \left(2S\right)}<4.5,2.0<{\eta }_{{\mu }^{\pm }}<4.5)=9.40\pm 0.15\pm 0.13\pm 0.27pb,$where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic and due to the luminosity determination. In addition, a measurement of the ratio of\psi(2S) $\psi \left(2S\right)$andJ/\psi $J/\psi$cross-sections, at an average photon-proton centre-of-mass energy of1\ \mathrm{TeV} $1TeV$, is performed, giving$ = 0.1763 ± 0.0029 ± 0.0008 ± 0.0039,$$ where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic and the third due to the knowledge of the involved branching fractions. For the first time, the dependence of theJ/\psi$ $J/\psi$and\psi(2S) $\psi \left(2S\right)$cross-sections on the total transverse momentum transfer is determined inpp $pp$collisions and is found consistent with the behaviour observed in electron-proton collisions.