Search for Higgs Bosons Decaying into b anti-b and Produced in Association with a Vector Boson in Proton-Antiproton Collisions at 1.8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for Higgs bosons decaying into bottom quark pairs produced alongside vector bosons in proton-antiproton collisions, setting upper limits on production cross sections without observing a signal.

Contribution

First combined search for $H^0V$ production with various vector boson decay modes at 1.8 TeV, providing new upper limits on Higgs production cross sections.

Findings

No evidence of Higgs signal observed.

Set upper limits on $\sigma(par{p} o H^{0}V) imeseta$ at 95% credibility.

Limits are 7.8, 7.2, and 6.6 pb for Higgs masses of 90, 110, and 130 GeV/$c^{2}$.

Abstract

We present a new search for $H^{0}V$ production, where $H^0$ is a scalar Higgs boson decaying into $b\bar{b}$ with branching ratio $\beta$, and $V$ is a $Z^{0}$ boson decaying into $e^{+}e^{-}$, $\mu^{+}\mu^{-}$, or $\nu\bar{\nu}$. This search is then combined with previous searches for $H^{0}V$ where $V$ is a $W^{\pm}$ boson or a hadronically decaying $Z^{0}$. The data sample consists of $106 \pm 4$ pb$^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.8$ TeV accumulated by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Observing no evidence of a signal, we set 95% Bayesian credibility level upper limits on $\sigma(p\bar{p}\to H^{0}V)\times\beta$. For $H^0$ masses of 90, 110 and 130 GeV/$c^{2}$, the limits are 7.8, 7.2, and 6.6 pb respectively.