| The search for the associated production of the Standard Model Higgs boson and a W boson is motivated and discussed here. It is performed using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.7 fb –1, collected by the CDF detector during pp¯ collisions at s = 1.96 TeV at the Tevatron. W H → τνbb¯ candidate events are selected requiring two jets, a hadronically decaying τ lepton and large missing transverse energy. To increase the signal-to-background ratio, at least one of the jets must be consistent with originating from a bottom quark. A binned likelihood fit of the dijet invariant mass distribution is performed to test for a potential Higgs boson signal. In the absence of an observed excess, we set a 95% Confidence Level (C.L.) upper limit on the production rate times branching ratio for a potential Higgs boson as a function of its mass. For a test mass of 115 GeV/c², the observed (expected) 95% C.L. upper limit is 28.7 (46.6) times the Standard Model expectation. |
