Search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with W or Z bosons, and decaying to bottom quarks for LHCp 2013

A search for the standard model Higgs boson (H) decaying to $\mathrm{b\bar b}$, when produced in association with a weak vector boson (V), is reported for the following modes: $\mathrm{W}(\mu\nu)\mathrm{H},~ \mathrm{W}(e\nu)\mathrm{H}, ~\mathrm{W}(\tau\nu)\mathrm{H},~ \mathrm{Z}(\mu\mu)\mathrm{H},~ \mathrm{Z}(ee)\mathrm{H}$ and $\mathrm{Z}(\nu\nu)\mathrm{H}$. The search is performed in data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of $5.0$ fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=$7 TeV and up to 19.0 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=$8 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC. Upper limits, at the 95$\%$ confidence level, on the VH production cross section times the $\mathrm{H} \to \mathrm{b\bar b}$ branching ratio, with respect to the expectations for a standard model Higgs boson, are derived for a Higgs boson in the mass range 110-135~\GeV. In this range, the observed upper limits vary from 1.1 to 3.1 times the standard model prediction; the corresponding expected limits vary from 0.7 to 1.5. At a Higgs boson mass of 125~\GeV the observed limit is 1.89 and the expected limit is 0.95. An excess of events is observed above the expected background with a local significance of 2.1 standard deviations, consistent with the expectation from the production of the standard model Higgs boson. The signal strength corresponding to this excess, relative to that of the standard model Higgs boson, is ${1.0}_{-0.5}^{+0.5}$.