Measurement of the Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion and its decay into bottom quarks in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

A measurement of the Higgs boson (H) production via vector boson fusion
(VBF) and its decay into a bottom quark-antiquark pair (bb¯) is presented using protonproton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at √
s = 13 TeV and corresponding
to an integrated luminosity of 90.8 fb−1
. Treating the gluon-gluon fusion process as a
background and constraining its rate to the value expected in the standard model (SM)
within uncertainties, the signal strength of the VBF process, defned as the ratio of the
observed signal rate to that predicted by the SM, is measured to be µ
qqH
Hbb¯ = 1.01+0.55
−0.46. The
VBF signal is observed with a signifcance of 2.4 standard deviations relative to the background
prediction, while the expected signifcance is 2.7 standard deviations. Considering inclusive
Higgs boson production and decay into bottom quarks, the signal strength is measured
to be µ
incl.
Hbb¯ = 0.99+0.48
−0.41, corresponding to an observed (expected) signifcance of 2.6 (2.9)
standard deviations.