Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson in Tau Final States

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson using hadronically decaying tau leptons, in $1{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\overline{p}$ collider. We select two final states: ${\tau }^{\pm }$ plus missing transverse energy and $b$ jets, and ${\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ plus jets. These final states are sensitive to a combination of associated $W/Z$ boson plus Higgs boson, vector boson fusion, and gluon-gluon fusion production processes. The observed ratio of the combined limit on the Higgs production cross section at the 95% C.L. to the standard model expectation is 29 for a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV.

Figure 1

The dijet mass distribution for all tau types for the $\tau \nu$ analysis (a) before $b$ tagging, and (b) after the final selection; (c) the combined $N{N}_{Z\mathrm{jets}}$ variable for the low Higgs boson mass $\tau \tau$ analysis. The signal is shown (multiplied by 30) for $M_H=115\mathrm{GeV}$.