A search for W bb and W Higgs production in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for W boson production with b-quark pairs and Higgs boson production in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, setting upper limits on their cross sections based on data from the D0 experiment.

Contribution

First search for W b b̄ and W Higgs production at Tevatron, providing upper limits on their production cross sections in specific mass ranges.

Findings

Set 95% C.L. upper limit of 6.6 pb on W b b̄ production.

Established upper limits of 9.0-12.2 pb on W Higgs production for Higgs masses 105-135 GeV.

Analyzed 174 pb⁻¹ of data from the D0 experiment.

Abstract

We present a search for W b \bar{b} production in p \bar{p} collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV in events containing one electron, an imbalance in transverse momentum, and two b-tagged jets. Using 174 pb-1 of integrated luminosity accumulated by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider, and the standard-model description of such events, we set a 95% C.L. upper limit on W b \bar{b}$ production of 6.6 pb for b quarks with transverse momenta p_T^b > 20 GeV and b \bar{b} separation in pseudorapidity-azimuth space Delta R_bb > 0.75. Restricting the search to optimized b \bar{b} mass intervals provides upper limits on $WH$ production of 9.0$-$12.2 pb, for Higgs-boson masses of 105$-$135 GeV.