Search for the Higgs boson in the all-hadronic final state using the CDF II detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the Higgs boson decaying to bottom quarks in all-hadronic final states using the CDF II detector, setting limits on production cross sections without finding evidence.

Contribution

It introduces improved analysis techniques and includes vector boson fusion sensitivity, using twice the data volume of previous searches.

Findings

No evidence of Higgs boson observed.

Limits set on production cross section at 95% confidence level.

For 120 GeV/c^2, observed limit is 10.5 times the Standard Model prediction.

Abstract

We report on a search for the production of the Higgs boson decaying to two bottom quarks accompanied by two additional quarks. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of approximately 4\,\invfb\, of \ppbar\, collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$\,TeV recorded by the CDF II experiment. This search includes twice the integrated luminosity of the previous published result, uses analysis techniques to distinguish jets originating from light flavor quarks and those from gluon radiation, and adds sensitivity to a Higgs boson produced by vector boson fusion. We find no evidence of the Higgs boson and place limits on the Higgs boson production cross section for Higgs boson masses between 100\,\gevcc\, and 150\,\gevcc\, at the 95% confidence level. For a Higgs boson mass of 120\,\gevcc\, the observed (expected) limit is 10.5\,(20.0) times the predicted Standard Model cross section.