Search for Standard Model Higgs Bosons Produced in Association with W Bosons

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson produced with W bosons in proton-antiproton collisions, using neural networks for background reduction, but finds no significant signal and sets upper limits on production rates.

Contribution

First search for associated WH production with b-jet tagging and neural network background suppression at Tevatron energies.

Findings

No excess observed beyond background expectations.

Set upper limits on sigma*Br for Higgs masses 110-150 GeV/c2.

Limits range from 3.9 to 1.3 pb.

Abstract

We report on the results of a search for standard model Higgs bosons produced in association with W bosons from p-pbar collisions at root s = 1.96 TeV. The search uses a data sample corresponding to approximately 1 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. Events consistent with the W to l-nu and H to b-bbar signature are selected by triggering on a high-pT electron or muon candidate and tagging one or two of the jet candidates as having originated from b quarks. A neural network filter rejects a fraction of tagged charm and light flavor jets, increasing the b-jet purity in the sample and thereby reducing the background to Higgs boson production. We observe no excess l-nu-b-bbar production beyond the background expectation, and we set 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction sigma(p-pbar to WH) times Br(H to b-bbar) ranging from 3.9 to 1.3 pb, for specific Higgs boson mass hypotheses in the range 110 to 150 GeV/c2, respectively.