Observation of H ->bb decays and VH production with the ATLAS detector

A search for the decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson into a bb pair when produced in association with a W or Z boson is performed with the ATLAS detector. The analyzed data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 79.8 fb-1, were collected in proton–proton collisions in Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. For a Higgs boson mass of 125 GeV, a clear excess of events over the expected background from other Standard Model processes is found . A combination is performed with the results from other searches in Run 1 and in Run 2 for the Higgs boson in the bb decay mode, providing direct observation of the Higgs boson decay into b-quarks. Additionally, a combination of Run 2 results searching for the Higgs boson produced in association with a vector boson provides a direct observation of the Higgs boson being produced in association with a vector boson.