Analysis strategy for the SM Higgs boson search in the four-lepton final state in CMS

Abstract

The current status of the searches for the SM Higgs boson in the $H$$\rightarrow$$ZZ^{(*)}$$\rightarrow$$4\ell$ decay channel with the CMS experiment is presented. The selection cuts for suppressing the backgrounds while keeping very high signal efficiencies are described, along with the data-driven algorithms implemented to estimate the background yields and the systematic uncertainties. With an integrated luminosity of $1.66 \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$, upper limits at 95% CL on the SM-like Higgs cross section $\times$ branching ratio exclude cross sections from about one to two times the expected value from the Standard Model in the range $150 < m_{H} < 420 \mathrm{GeV}$. No evidence for the existence of the SM Higgs boson has been found so far.