High Energy Physcis Seminar-Seth Zenz-Searches for the Higgs Boson Decaying to Bottom Quarks in the CMS Detector
Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have discovered a new particle that appears to be the long-sought Higgs Boson. To confirm that this particle has all the properties predicted by the Standard Model of Particle Physics, its couplings to fermions must be observed directly. The most common Higgs decay is to pairs of bottom quarks, but these are challenging to identify at the LHC amidst the far more numerous bottom quarks pairs produced via Quantum Chromodynamics. By searching for decays to bottom quarks in collisions in which the Higgs is produced in association with a vector boson, these background quark pairs can be reduced to a manageable level. The present state of this search using the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment is presented, including strategies for identification of each possible vector boson decay and selection of the most "Higgs-like" events to increase the statistical power of the search. Prospects are discussed for future measurements of the Higgs decaying to bottom quarks, including methods for checking that the new particle is not an "imposter" with a different spin than expected.
Location: Jadwin A08
Date/Time: 01/16/13 at 2:00 pm - 01/16/13 at 3:00 pm
Category: High Energy Experiment Seminar
Department: Physics