Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a bb¯ pair in events with no charged leptons and large missing transverse energy using the full CDF data set

Abstract

We report on a search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson in the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at s√=1.96  TeV recorded by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 9.45  fb−1. We consider events having no identified charged lepton, a transverse energy imbalance, and two or three jets, of which at least one is consistent with originating from the decay of a b quark. We place 95% credibility level upper limits on the production cross section times standard model branching fraction for several mass hypotheses between 90 and 150  GeV/c2. For a Higgs boson mass of 125  GeV/c2, the observed (expected) limit is 6.7 (3.6) times the standard model prediction