Higgs production in association with a Z Boson at the LHC

The associated Z vector boson production rate of the Standard Model Higgs boson has been measured in decays into two b quarks, with the Z boson decaying into an electron or muon pair in the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The associated Z vector boson production cross section in the Standard Model is almost two orders of magnitude smaller than the dominant Higgs boson production cross section from gluon fusion. Proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV delivered by the LHC with the ATLAS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 13 fb−1 has been analysed. A Higgs boson produced via associated production with a Z vector boson is excluded with a 95% confidence level in a mass range between 110 to 130 GeV at 6 to 11 times the Standard Model cross section, respectively.