An inclusive search for the Higgs boson in the four-lepton final state at CDF

TL;DR

This paper reports a comprehensive search for the standard model Higgs boson in four-lepton final states at the Tevatron, setting limits on its production across a wide mass range using data from the CDF II detector.

Contribution

It presents the first inclusive search for the Higgs boson in four-lepton final states at the Tevatron, combining multiple decay modes and setting mass-dependent limits.

Findings

Nine candidate events observed, consistent with background expectations.

Set 95% credibility limits on Higgs production cross section for 120-300 GeV/c^2.

Probed three decay modes: ZZ, WW, and tau-tau.

Abstract

An inclusive search for the standard model Higgs boson using the four-lepton final state in proton-antiproton collisions produced by the Tevatron at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV is conducted. The data are recorded by the CDF II detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 9.7 /fb. Three distinct Higgs decay modes, namely ZZ, WW, and tau-tau, are simultaneously probed. Nine potential signal events are selected and found to be consistent with the background expectation. We set a 95% credibility limit on the production cross section times the branching ratio and subsequent decay to the four lepton final state for hypothetical Higgs boson masses between 120 GeV/c^2 and 300 GeV/c^2.