Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in final states with $b$ quarks at the Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper reports on searches for a low-mass Standard Model Higgs boson produced with W or Z bosons at the Tevatron, using up to 8.5 fb$^{-1}$ of data, achieving limits below five times the SM prediction.

Contribution

It presents the most sensitive channels and recent sensitivity improvements for low-mass Higgs searches at the Tevatron, including validation through WZ/ZZ cross-section measurements.

Findings

Expected sensitivity reaches 2.3 times the SM prediction for 115 GeV/c$^2$ Higgs

Limits are below 5 times the SM prediction at 95% CL

Validation performed via WZ/ZZ cross-section measurement

Abstract

We present the result of searches for a low mass Standard Model Higgs boson produced in association with a $W$ or a $Z$ boson at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=$1.96 TeV with the CDF and D0 detectors at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The search is performed in events containing one or two $b$ tagged jets in association with either two leptons, or one lepton and an imbalance in transverse energy, or simply a large imbalance in transverse energy. Datasets corresponding to up to 8.5 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity are considered in the analyses. These are the most powerful channels in the search for a low mass Higgs boson at the Tevatron. Recent sensitivity improvements are discussed. For a Higgs mass of 115 \gevcc, the expected sensitivity for the most sensitive individual analyses reaches 2.3 times the SM prediction at 95% confidence level (C.L.), with all limits below 5 times the SM. Additionally, a $WZ/ZZ$ cross-section measurement is performed to validate the analysis techniques deployed for searching for the Higgs.