Search for standard-model Z and Higgs bosons decaying into a bottom-antibottom quark pair in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV

The Collider Detector at Fermilab collected a unique sample of jets originating from bottom-quark fragmentation (b-jets) by selecting online proton-antiproton (p (p) over bar) collisions with a vertex displaced from p (p) over bar interaction point, consistent with the decay of a bottom-quark hadron. This data set, collected at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb(-1), is used to measure the Z-boson production cross section times branching ratio into b (b) over bar. The number of Z -> b (b) over bar events is determined by fitting the dijet-mass distribution, while constraining the dominant b-jet background, originating from QCD multijet events, with data. The result, sigma(p(p)over bar> -> Z) x B(Z -> b (b) over bar) = 1.11 +/- 0.08(stat) +/- 0.14(syst) nb, is the most precise measurement of this process, and is consistent with the standard-model prediction. The data set is also used to search for Higgs-boson production. No significant signal is expected in our data and the first upper limit on the cross section for the inclusive p(p)over bar>-> H -> b (b) over bar process at root s = 1.96 TeV is set, corresponding to 33 times the expected standard-model cross section, or sigma = 40.6 pb, at the 95% confidence level.