Review of the Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion and its decay into bottom quarks in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=8,13$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper reviews the experimental techniques and results for Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion and its decay into bottom quarks at the LHC, highlighting recent advances and future prospects.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the latest experimental methods, results, and future plans for studying Higgs to bottom quarks in vector boson fusion at the LHC.

Findings

Improved sensitivity using boosted decision trees and deep-learning-based b-tagging.

Consistent measurements with Standard Model predictions from 8 TeV and 13 TeV data.

Constraints on deviations in the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling.

Abstract

We present a comprehensive overview of the vector boson fusion production and the following decay of the Higgs boson to two bottom quarks (\(H\!\to\! b\bar{b}\)), which dominates the Higgs total width yet remains experimentally challenging because of substantial QCD multijet backgrounds. We overview the use of boosted decision trees, which advance jet reconstruction and flavour tagging by including boosted topologies and deep-learning-based \(b\)-tagging and which improve sensitivity in associated production channels. Special attention is given to ATLAS and CMS selections and results pertaining to the vector boson fusion production of Higgs, decaying in the $b\bar{b}$-channel, from both the 8 TeV and the 13 TeV LHC data-sets conducted with up to 90.8 $fb^{-1}$ of Data and published through 2024. Consistent with the Standard Model gauge symmetry \(SU(3)_C \times SU(2)_L \times U(1)_Y\) predictions, we emphasise how \(H\!\to\! b\bar{b}\) measurements contribute, in conjunction with other production modes and decay channels, to tests of the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling, which is an essential probe of the electroweak symmetry-breaking mechanism. Finally, we discuss how the current precision constrains deviations in the bottom-quark Yukawa coupling, outline ongoing efforts during Run 3, and consider the prospects of forthcoming high-luminosity LHC operation and the proposed Future Circular Collider in further tightening precision tests of the Standard Model and beyond.