The sensitivity of the ATLAS detector to the Standard Model Higgs boson in the four lepton final state

Abstract

The search for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson is one of the main objectives of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The decay mode leading to a four lepton (electron/muon) final state provides an experimentally clean signature and contributes significantly to the discovery potential. The analysis strategy for selecting signal and rejecting backgrounds is described. The sensitivity of the ATLAS detector to a SM Higgs boson in the four lepton final state and in a combination of channels is presented for a range of masses, from 120 GeV to 600 GeV.