Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson Decaying to mu+mu- in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 and 8 TeV with the CMS Detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for the Standard Model Higgs boson decaying into mu+mu- using CMS data from 7 and 8 TeV collisions, setting upper limits on its production rate in the 120-150 GeV mass range.

Contribution

It introduces a categorization method to enhance the Higgs signal over background in the mu+mu- decay channel at the LHC.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Upper limits set on Higgs production rate at 95% confidence level.

Analysis covers Higgs masses from 120 to 150 GeV.

Abstract

A search for the standard model Higgs boson in the rare mu+mu- decay channel is presented. The data samples, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, correspond to integrated luminosities of 5.0 +/- 0.1 inverse femtobarns at 7 TeV center-of-mass energy and of 19.7 +/- 0.5 inverse femtobarns at 8 TeV. To enhance the Higgs signal over the dominant Drell-Yan background, the events are categorized by topologies corresponding to different production processes. Upper limits on the production rate, with respect to the Standard Model prediction, are reported at the 95% confidence level for Higgs boson masses in the range from 120 to 150 GeV.