Eur. Phys. J. C 25, 391-403 (2002)
DOI: 10.1007/s10052-002-01032-9

Ways to detect a light Higgs boson at the LHC

A. De Roeck¹, V.A. Khoze^{2, 3}, A.D. Martin², R. Orava⁴ and M.G. Ryskin<sup>2, 3

1</sup>  CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
²  Institute for Particle Physics Phenomenology, University of Durham, Durham DH1 3LE, UK
³  Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, Gatchina, St. Petersburg, 188300, Russia
⁴  Department of Physical Sciences, University of Helsinki, and Helsinki Institute of Physics, Finland

(Received: 5 July 2002 / Published online: 30 August 2002 )

Abstract
We summarize the possible processes which may be used to search for a Higgs boson, of mass in the range 114-130 GeV, at the LHC. We discuss, in detail, two processes with rapidity gaps: exclusive Higgs production with tagged outgoing protons and production by Weak Boson Fusion, in each case taking as the signal. We make an extensive study of all possible backgrounds, and discuss the relevant experimental issues. We emphasize the special features of these signals, and of their background processes, and show that they could play an important role in identifying a light Higgs boson at the LHC.

© Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag 2002