Intermediate mass standard model Higgs boson at the proposed CERN LEP$\otimes$LHC $ep$ collider

Abstract

The production of the \sm\ Higgs $\ddot{I}•$ with intermediate mass at the proposed CERN LEP$\otimes$LHC $ep$ collider in ${\hat{I}}^{3}q(\bar{q})\to W^{\pm }\ddot{I}•q^{\prime }({\bar{q}}^{\prime })$, ${\hat{I}}^{3}q(\bar{q})\to Z^0\ddot{I}•q(\bar{q})$ and $g{\hat{I}}^3\to q\bar{q}\ddot{I}•$ events is studied. This is done for all possible (massive) flavours of the quarks $q(q^{\prime })$ and using photons generated via Compton back--scattering of laser light. We study signatures in which the Higgs decays to $b\bar{b}$--pairs and the electroweak vector bosons $W^{\pm }$ and $Z^0$ decay either hadronically or leptonically. All possible backgrounds to these signals are also computed. Flavour identification on $b$--jets is assumed. Explicit formulae for the helicity amplitudes of the above processes are given.

31 pages, Latex, 8 figures uuencoded, revised version, significant changes in the discussion of the results, in tables and figures