Understanding the nonperturbative process of hadronization is a persistent goal in experimental studies of QCD. Since heavy quark production is suppressed at the hadronization scale, heavy-flavor hadrons offer a high-precision probe of the connection between theoretical calculations and experimental final states. Jets containing different flavors of these heavy hadrons, reconstructed across a broad range of jet transverse momentum, explore the dependence of local hadronic formation at different partonic mass scales with distinct final states. Furthermore, quarkonia production in jets explores the intersection between the parton shower, where gluons split into heavy quark-antiquark pairs, and the production of closed heavy-flavor hadrons. Jet substructure can also be used to probe the formation of exotic hadrons, whose structure is still not well understood. This talk presents recent studies of hadronization using heavy-flavor jets detected with the LHCb detector. These studies include inclusive hadron production in heavy-flavor jets, as well as quarkonia and tetraquark production in jets. Results are compared to various models of hadronization, providing strong new constraints on theoretical predictions of confinement in jets.

In this contribution, recent results for helium identification and production at LHCb will be discussed. From √sNN = 13 TeV pp collisions, a nearly background-free sample of more than 105 helium candidates is identified by their ionisation losses in the silicon detectors, combined with information from the calorimeter, the muon chambers and the RICH detector. Combined with the excellent LHCb vertexing capabilities, (anti)helium production from (anti)hypertriton or (anti)Lambda-b decays is studied. In both cases, a rich programme of QCD and astrophysics interest, exemplifying LHCb flexibility in exploring new research fields, is foreseen.

Open charm production is a sensitive probe of both hot and cold nuclear matter effects. Charm meson production provides strong constraints on nuclear parton distributions, while charm baryon and strange charm hadron production can be used to probe strangeness- and baryon-enhancing hot QCD effects, respectively. The LHCb detector is designed to study heavy flavor hadrons at the LHC, providing unique opportunities to study open charm production in heavy ion collisions. In this contribution, recent LHCb results on open charm production will be discussed, as well as their comparisons with recent theoretical models.

Strange hadron production provides information about the hadronization process in high-energy hadron collisions. Strangeness enhancement has been interpreted as a signature of quark-gluon plasma formation in heavy-ion collisions, and recent observations of strangeness enhancement in small collisions systems have challenged conventional hadronization models. With its forward geometry and excellent particle identification capabilities, the LHCb detector is well-suited to study strangeness production in a unique kinematic region. Recent studies of strangeness production with the LHCb detector will be presented, including measurements of strangeness enhancement in the charm- and beauty-hadron systems

In preparation to the LHC Run3, the LHCb gaseous fixed-target, SMOG, was upgraded to offer higher instantaneous luminosity by up to two orders of magnitude with respect to Run2, new gases, including non-noble ones such as hydrogen, and an increased experimental accuracy. Since 2022, LHCb is working with two independent collision points and as a collider and a fixed-target experiment simultaneously, a unique opportunity in the scientific panorama. In this contribution, the performance of the system from the 2024 acquired data, the first obtained results and the physics prospects for the incoming years will be presented.

The LHCb detector’s forward geometry provides unprecedented access to the very low regions of Bjorken x inside the nucleon. LHCb is able to study charged and neutral light hadron production, as well as relatively rare probes such as heavy quark. These data provide unique constraints on nuclear parton distributions. This contribution will discuss recent LHCb measurements sensitive to the low-x structure of nucleons, and discuss the impact of recent LHCb measurements on global analyses of nuclear parton distributions

The Upstream Tracker (UT) is a crucial component in the LHCb tracking system installed in the Upgrade I. The UT is a silicon microstrip detector that speeds up track reconstruction, reduces the rate of ghost tracks, and improves reconstruction of long-lived particles. LHCb is planning Upgrade II during Long-Shutdown 4 aiming at increasing the peak luminosity by a factor of 7.5. The event pile-up and occupancies will be far beyond the design of the current UT, while radiation damage and pattern recognition will also be challenging. The plan of a new UT using MAPS sensors is proposed. The major sensor technology options will be discussed. The digitization and simulation of the MAPS-based UT will be introduced. Based on the simulation, optmization of the system design is performed, and impact of various operation scenarios is studied.

The aim of the LHCb Upgrade II is to operate at a luminosity of up to 1.5 x $10^{34}cm^{-2}s^{-1}$ . The required substantial modifications of the current LHCb ECAL due to high radiation doses in the central region and increased particle densities are referred to as PicoCal. An enhancement already during LS3 will reduce the occupancy and mitigate substantial ageing effects in the central region after Run 3. R&D on several scintillating sampling ECAL technologies is currently being performed: SpaCal with garnet scintillating crystals and tungsten absorber, SpaCal with scintillating plastic fibres and tungsten or lead absorber, and Shashlik with polystyrene tiles, lead absorber and fast WLS fibres. Time resolutions of better than 20 ps at high energy were observed in test beam measurements of prototype SpaCal and Shashlik modules. The presentation will also cover results from detailed simulations to optimise the design and physics performance of the PicoCal.

The LHCb experiment will undergo its high luminosity detector upgrade in 2033-2034 to operate at a maximal instantaneous luminosity of 1.5 × 1034cm-2s-1. This increase in instantaneous luminosity poses a challenge to the tracking system to achieve proper track reconstruction with a tenfold higher occupancy. Here we focus on foreseen solutions for the new tracking stations after the magnet, called Mighty Tracker. It is of hybrid nature, comprising silicon pixels in the inner region and scintillating fibres in the outer region. The silicon pixels provide the necessary granularity and radiation tolerance to handle the high track density expected in the central region, while the scintillating fibres are well suited for the peripheral acceptance region. New R&D activities are needed in both technologies to cope with the highest instantaneous luminosity and the drastic increase in the radiation environment. An overview of the current status of the Mighty Tracker project will be presented.

The LHCb (Large Hadron Collider Beauty) experiment will undergo its high-luminosity detector upgrade (known as Upgrade~II) in the long shutdown 4 of the LHC (2033-2034) to operate at a maximal instantaneous luminosity of $\rm 1.5~\times~10^{34}{cm}^{-2}{s}^{-1}$ in Runs~5 and~6, ten times higher than in previous data taking periods. This increase in instantaneous luminosity poses a challenge to the tracking system to achieve proper track reconstruction with a tenfold higher occupancy. In this abstract we focus on foreseen solutions for the tracking stations after the magnet, currently performed by the Scintillating Fibre (SciFi) Tracker. The SciFi Tracker is composed of mats of staggered scintillating fibres with a silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) readout system to detect charged particles. In Upgrade~II, the inner region of the SciFi will be instrumented with an HV-CMOS pixel detector to cope with the high occupancy in this region. For the outer SciFi region, adding timing information to the track reconstruction is currently being evaluated in a dedicated simulation study to understand its role in reducing the occupancy, minimising ghost tracks (reconstructed tracks not produced by real charged particles) and decreasing the track computation time. Additionally to the higher instantaneous luminosity, the integrated luminosity will also increase in the future data taking periods, with an aim to collect a total of $\rm 240~fb^{-1}$. This will lead to a drastic increase in the radiation environment and thus in the SiPM's dark count rate (DCR), making cryogenic cooling and novel detector technologies necessary to maintain single photon detection capabilities. This also requires an update of the front-end electronics to operate at such a large temperature range and to maximise charge collection.