Boosted Higgs $\rightarrow b\bar{b}$ in vector-boson associated production at 14 TeV

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential for detecting the Higgs boson decaying to b-quarks in association with a vector boson at 14 TeV, emphasizing the most sensitive boosted regions and comparing dijet and jet substructure methods.

Contribution

It provides an updated analysis of the Higgs to b-quark decay in vector-boson associated production, highlighting the importance of jet substructure techniques at high transverse momentum.

Findings

Lower transverse momentum region (200-400 GeV) is most sensitive for Standard Model searches.

Conventional dijet selection performs as well as jet substructure in 200-600 GeV range.

Jet substructure techniques are crucial for high transverse momentum regions (>600 GeV).

Abstract

The production of the Standard Model Higgs boson in association with a vector boson, followed by the dominant decay to $H \rightarrow b\bar{b}$, is a strong prospect for confirming and measuring the coupling to $b$-quarks in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV. We present an updated study of the prospects for this analysis, focussing on the most sensitive highly Lorentz-boosted region. The evolution of the efficiency and composition of the signal and main background processes as a function of the transverse momentum of the vector boson are studied covering the region $200-1000$ GeV, comparing both a conventional dijet and jet substructure selection. The lower transverse momentum region ($200-400$ GeV) is identified as the most sensitive region for the Standard Model search, with higher transverse momentum regions not improving the statistical sensitivity. For much of the studied region ($200-600$ GeV), a conventional dijet selection performs as well as the substructure approach, while for the highest transverse momentum regions ($> 600$ GeV), which are particularly interesting for Beyond the Standard Model and high luminosity measurements, the jet substructure techniques are essential.