Search for Standard Model Higgs Bosons Produced in Association with W Bosons

The authors report on the results of a search for standard model Higgs bosons produced in association with W bosons from p(bar p) collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV. The search uses a data sample corresponding to approximately 1 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. Events consistent with the W → (ell)ν and H → b(bar b) signature are selected by triggering on a high-pT electron or muon candidate and tagging one or two of the jet candidates as having originated from b quarks. A neural network filter rejects a fraction of tagged charm and light flavor jets, increasing the b-jet purity in the sample and thereby reducing the background to Higgs boson production. They observe no excess (ell)νb(bar b) production beyond the background expectation, and they set 95% confidence level upper limits on the production cross section times branching fraction σ(p(bar p) → WH) · Br(H → b(bar b)) ranging from 3.9 to 1.3 pb, for specific Higgs boson mass hypotheses in the range 110 to 150 GeV/c2, respectively