Abstract

We present a method for searching for associated production of the Higgs boson and a Z boson, ppbar -> Z H , where the Z boson decays to two leptons and the Higgs decays to a pair of b quarks, leading to the llbb (two leptons, two b jets) final state. We use a matrix element weighting technique to construct the likelihood function of the Higgs content of the data sample. Using simulated pseudo-experiments, we estimate the sensitivity of the technique to observe the standard model Higgs boson with a mass of 120 GeV. We also present the limit obtained from the data on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson at 120 GeV.