The observation of the standard model (SM) Higgs boson decay to a pair of bottom quarks is presented. The main contribution to this result is from processes in which Higgs bosons are produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson ($VH$), and are searched for in final states including 0, 1, or 2 charged leptons and two identified bottom quark jets. The results from the measurement of these processes in a data sample recorded by the CMS experiment in 2017, comprising $41.3{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13\mathrm{TeV}$, are described. When combined with previous $VH$ measurements using data collected at $\sqrt{s}=7$, 8, and 13 TeV, an excess of events is observed at $m_H=125\mathrm{GeV}$ with a significance of 4.8 standard deviations, where the expectation for the SM Higgs boson is 4.9. The corresponding measured signal strength is $1.01\pm 0.22$. The combination of this result with searches by the CMS experiment for $H\to b\overline{b}$ in other production processes yields an observed (expected) significance of 5.6 (5.5) standard deviations and a signal strength of $1.04\pm 0.20$.

• Received 24 August 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.121801

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© 2018 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration