Search for the standard model Higgs boson in tau lepton pair final states

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in final states involving tau leptons and electrons or muons, using Fermilab Tevatron data, setting limits on production cross sections at various masses.

Contribution

It presents the first search for Higgs boson decays to tau pairs in these specific final states at the Tevatron, with new limits on cross sections at different Higgs masses.

Findings

Limits on Higgs production cross section at 115 GeV are 14 times the SM prediction.

Limits at 165 GeV are 7.7 times the SM prediction.

Analysis covers multiple production mechanisms and decay channels.

Abstract

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson in final states with an electron or muon and a hadronically decaying tau lepton in association with zero, one, or two or more jets using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 7.3 fb^{-1} collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The analysis is sensitive to Higgs boson production via gluon gluon fusion, associated vector boson production, and vector boson fusion, and to Higgs boson decays to tau lepton pairs or W boson pairs. Observed (expected) limits are set on the ratio of 95% C.L. upper limits on the cross section times branching ratio, relative to those predicted by the Standard Model, of 14 (22) at a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV and 7.7 (6.8) at 165 GeV.