Search for Higgs Bosons Produced in Association with b-Quarks

We present a search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying into bb, produced in association with b quarks in pp collisions. This process could be observable in supersymmetric models with high values of tanβ. We search for an enhancment in the mass of the two lead jets m₁₂ in triply b-tagged events, using a data sample corresponding to 2.5/fb of integrated luminosity collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The dijet mass spectrum of the heavy flavor multi-jet background is derived from double-tagged data in a manner that accounts for tagging biases and kinematic differences introduced by the addition of the third tag. The levels of background and possible signal are determined by a two-dimensional fit of the data, using m₁₂ and an additional variable x_tags which is sensitive to the flavor composition of the three tagged jets. We set mass-dependent limits on &sigma x BR(H→bb) which are applicable for a narrow Higgs or other scalar particle produced in association with b quarks. We also interpret the results as limits on tanβ in MSSM models including the effects of the Higgs width.

Public note for Winter 2010 conferences (CDF/10105)

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