Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb pair in events with one charged lepton and large missing transverse energy using the full CDF data set

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into a bottom-quark pair in events with a charged lepton and missing energy, using the full CDF dataset, setting upper limits on production cross section at 95% credibility.

Contribution

The study provides the most comprehensive search for Higgs to bb decays associated with a W boson using the full Tevatron dataset, establishing new upper limits on the production rate.

Findings

At 125 GeV/c^2, the observed limit is 4.9 times the standard model prediction.

The expected limit at 125 GeV/c^2 is 2.8 times the standard model prediction.

The analysis constrains the Higgs production cross section in the studied channel.

Abstract

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a W boson in sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV p-pbar collision data collected with the CDF II detector at the Tevatron corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45 fb-1. In events consistent with the decay of the Higgs boson to a bottom-quark pair and the W boson to an electron or muon and a neutrino, we set 95% credibility level upper limits on the WH production cross section times the H->bb branching ratio as a function of Higgs boson mass. At a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV/c2 we observe (expect) a limit of 4.9 (2.8) times the standard model value.