Search for Higgs Boson at LHC in the Reaction pp->gamma+gamma+jet at a Low Luminosity

Abstract

We discuss the SM Higgs discovery potential of the LHC in the channel pp->H+jet->gamma+gamma+jet when the jet is observed at sufficiently high Pt and a small rapidity to be reliably identified. We calculate all the signal subprocesses and the irreducible background with realistic kinematical cuts. The reducible QCD background is also estimated. We conclude that the channel gamma+gamma+jet can give about 120-200 signal events for Higgs mass MH=100-140 GeV at the integrated luminosity of 30 inverse fb. This signal rate should be compared with only 330-600 events for the irreducible background per two-photon invariant mass interval of 2 GeV. We estimate the QCD reducible background at the level of 20% of the irreducible one. Thus, one may hope that the Higgs boson can be discovered already during the LHC operation at a low luminosity. At a high luminosity the observation of several hundreds of high Pt Higgs bosons in this channel will be possible with significance higher than 15 for L=100 inverse fb.