Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson Decaying to Bottom Quarks in Proton-Proton Collisions at 8 TeV

A search for the standard model Higgs boson (H) decaying to bottom quarks and produced in association with a Z boson is presented. The search uses 8 TeV center-of-mass energy proton-proton collision data recorded by the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider corresponding to integrated luminosity of 19.0 inverse femtobarns. The Z boson is reconstructed using two oppositely charged leptons – either electrons or muons. Two techniques for reconstructing the Higgs candidate are discussed: the standard method using two jets reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm and a second technique using jet substructure that was developed for highly boosted massive particles. Upper limits, at the 95% confidence level, on the production cross section times the branching ratio, with respect to the standard model expectations, are derived for a Higgs boson in a mass range 110-135 GeV. The results from the ZH channel are combined with five other channels, and an excess of events is observed consistent with the standard model Higgs boson with a local significance of 2.1 standard deviations at 125 GeV.