Weak boson fusion H->WW(*)->l+l-Pt-miss as a search mode for an intermediate mass SM Higgs boson at ATLAS

The weak boson fusion production process gives a distinctive signature for a Standard Model Higgs boson due to forward tagging jets in the final state. The decay H ->WW(*) ->l+ l- p_T^{miss} is studied as a discovery channel for an intermediate mass Higgs boson, and acceptance cuts are developed to isolate the signal from the main Standard Model backgrounds. The distinctive signature allows a signal to be observed above the 5sigma level for M_H = 160 - 190 GeV with an integrated luminosity of 5 fb-1 and for M_H = 135 - 190 GeV with 10 fb-1. A systematic uncertainty on the background rate of up to 10% is also considered, and is not found to adversely affect the discovery potential.