Search for WH associated production at D{\o} Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper reports on the search for Higgs boson production in association with W or Z bosons at the DZero experiment, using sophisticated analysis techniques to set upper limits on production cross sections.

Contribution

It presents the first search for WH associated production at DZero with advanced analysis methods and sets upper limits on the Higgs production cross section.

Findings

Upper limit of 4.6 times the Standard Model prediction at 115 GeV/c2

Analysis used 8.5 fb-1 of data from DZero

Employs b-jet identification and multivariate discriminants

Abstract

The Higgs mechanism introduced in 1964 gives a satisfactory solution to a major problem of the standard model of elementary particles: the origin of the mass. It predicts the existence of the Higgs scalar boson, which has not been discovered experimentally yet. The Tevatron, a hadron accelerator based at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago, has delivered data to its two multi-purpose detectors CDF and DZERO since 1983 up to september 2011. Leaving us about 11 fb-1 of data per experiment to analyze. Associated production of a Higgs boson and a vector gauge boson W or Z is the main search channel for a light standard Higgs boson (i.e. below 135 GeV/c2). Using data collected by DZERO, we are looking for this production mode taking advantage of sophisticated techniques to improve the signal sensitivity such as b-jet identification and multivariate discriminants. In the end, a statistical approach allows us to set an upper limit on the ratio between the observed (resp. expected) Higgs production cross section and its theoretical cross section. The latest result obtained in the WH channel using 8.5 f b-1 at DZERO is 4.6 (resp. 3.5) for a 115 GeV/c2 Higgs boson.