  We reexamine the prospects for searching for a neutral Higgs boson in the
intermediate-mass range and physics beyond the standard model, using the
proton- and ion-beam facilities of the LHC to study coherent two-photon
processes. Considering realistic design luminosities for the different ion
beams, we find that beams of light-to-medium size ions like calcium will give
the highest production rates. With a suitable trigger and assuming a b-quark
identification efficiency of $30\%$ and a $b{\bar b}$ mass resolution of 10 GeV
one could expect to see a Higgs signal in the $b{\bar b}$ channel with a 3-4
$\sigma$ statistical significance in the first phase of operation of the LHC
with beams of calcium. The discovery potential for light supersymmetric
particles is as promissing. The study of such very ``quiet'' final state
topologies in heavy ion collisions could even lead to the discovery of a new
phase of QED.
