Issue Summary

Currently, Jira allows the use of special characters, such as '&', when creating group names. However, there is an issue when searching for these groups. For instance, if a group is named 'E&I.Specials.Repair' and you use a 'Group Picker' field, it's impossible to find the group by typing its full name. When you begin typing 'E', results appear, but as soon as the '&' character is added (e.g. 'E&'), no results are shown. It seems that when searching for 'E&I.Specials.Repair', the search engine retrieves all groups containing 'E', and only the first 20 results are shown, causing the 'E&I.Specials.Repair' group to be excluded from the list if there are 20 groups appear earlier (as this is alphabetically ordered).

Please find the attached screen recording demonstrating this behavior, along with an analysis of the dev tools panel: Screen Recording 2024-09-12 at 11.29.47.mov

Steps to Reproduce

1. Create a group named 'E&I.Specials.Repair'.
2. Add a 'Group Picker' field to a project.
3. Ensure that there are at least 20 groups containing the letter 'E' that appear before the 'E&I.Specials.Repair' group in the search results. To simplify this, I’ve provided a Python script that creates 50 groups: test_groups_creation.py(please note that this script is provided solely for testing purposes, and you should use it at your own risk). When running the script, be sure to include the letter 'E' if you’re using the 'E&I.Specials.Repair' group name for testing.
4. Create an issue and use the Group Picker field to search for 'E&I.Specials.Repair'.

Expected Results

When searching for its full name, the group 'E&I.Specials.Repair' should appear in the search results.

Actual Results

The group can't be found using its full name in the search results.

Workaround

Users will need to search using alternative terms to find the group, such as 'I.Specials.Repair' or 'Specials.Repair'. We recognize that this is not an ideal user experience. We will provide a better workaround as soon as one is available, until the bug is fully resolved.