Search for long-lived particles decaying to jet pairs

Abstract

A search is presented for long-lived particles with a mass between 25 and 50 GeV/c2 and a lifetime between 1 and 200ps in a sample of proton–proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 0.62 fb −1, collected by the LHCb detector. The particles are assumed to be pair-produced by the decay of a standard model-like Higgs boson. The experimental signature of the long-lived particle is a displaced vertex with two associated jets. No excess above the background is observed and limits are set on the production cross-section as a function of the long-lived particle mass and lifetime.