Vector Boson Fusion Production of the Standard Model Higgs at the LHC

Abstract

The cross section measurements of the Higgs boson production in the vector boson fusion (VBF) process at the LHC followed by a Higgs boson decay into tautau, WW and gamma gamma will significantly extend the possibility of Higgs boson coupling measurements. Prospective analyses with the CMS experiment are discussed for the H-> gammagamma, WW and tautau decay channels for an integrated LHC luminosity of 30 fb-1. For a Higgs boson mass in the range 115 to 140 GeV, an observation with a significance above 2 standard deviations is expected in the H to gammagamma channel, and above 3 standard deviations in the H to tautau channel. The H to WW channel offers a discovery reach above 5 sigma in the mass range 140 to 200 GeV. A new complete strategy is presented for the control of systematics and early searches at very low luminosities of the order of 1 fb-1.