Search for the Standard Model Higgs boson in the H \to ZZ \to \ell ^ + \ell ^ - q\bar q decay channel at CMS on 4.6 fb−1 of 7 TeV proton-proton collision data

A search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two Z bosons with subsequent decay to a final state containing two leptons and two quark-jets, \(H \to ZZ \to \ell ^ + \ell ^ - q\bar q\) is presented. Results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb−1 of proton-proton collisions at \(\sqrt s = 7\) TeV and collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC. The analysis performance is strengthened against jet resolution effects thanks to an accurate jet energy calibration carried out on photon+jet events, and the use of a kinematic fit to the \(Z \to q\bar q\) decay chain. Selections to discriminate between signal and background events are based on kinematic and topological quantities including the angular spin correlations of the decay products. Events are further classified for analysis according to the probability of the jets to originate from quarks of light or heavy flavor or from gluons. No evidence for a Higgs boson is found and upper limits on the Higgs boson production cross section are set in the range of masses between 200GeV and 600GeV.