Search for the Higgs boson in events with missing transverse energy and b quark jets produced in proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This study searches for the Higgs boson in proton-antiproton collisions by identifying events with missing transverse energy and b-quark jets, setting upper limits on production cross sections at Tevatron energies.

Contribution

First search for Higgs in events with missing energy and b-jets at Tevatron, providing new upper limits on production cross sections for various masses.

Findings

Observed limits are 20.4 times the Standard Model prediction at 115 GeV/c2.

Approximately 248 background events expected, with 268 candidate events observed.

Set 95% CL upper limits on Higgs production cross sections across 110-140 GeV/c2.

Abstract

We search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with an electroweak vector boson in events with no identified charged leptons, large imbalance in transverse momentum, and two jets where at least one contains a secondary vertex consistent with the decay of b hadrons. We use ~1 fb-1 integrated luminosity of proton-antiproton collisions at s**(1/2)=1.96 TeV recorded by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron. We find 268 (16) single (double) b-tagged candidate events, where 248 +/- 43 (14.4 +/- 2.7) are expected from standard model background processes. We place 95% confidence level upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section for several Higgs boson masses ranging from 110 GeV/c2 to 140 GeV/c2. For a mass of 115 GeV/c2 the observed (expected) limit is 20.4 (14.2) times the standard model prediction.