Detecting Higgs bosons in the bb̄ decay channel using forward proton tagging at the LHC

A detailed study is presented of the search for Higgs bosons in the b-decay channel in the central exclusive production process at the LHC. We present results for proton tagging detectors at both 220m and 420m around ATLAS or CMS. We consider two benchmark scenarios; a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson and the m h scenario of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). Detector acceptance, smearing and event trigger strategies are considered. We find that the SM Higgs will be challenging to observe in the b-jet channel without improvements to the currently proposed experimental configuration, but a neutral scalar MSSM Higgs Boson could be observable in the b-jet channel with a significance of 3σ or greater within three years of data taking at all luminosities between 2× 1033 cm−2 s−1 and 1034 cm−2 s−1, and at 5σ or greater after three years in certain scenarios.