Higgs-Boson Production in Association with a Single Bottom Quark

Higgs bosons from an extended Higgs sector, such as a two-Higgs-doublet model, can have greatly enhanced coupling to the bottom quark. Producing such a Higgs boson in association with a single high-pT bottom quark via gb → hb allows for the suppression of backgrounds. Previous studies have instead used gg, qq̄ → bb̄h as the production mechanism, which is valid only if both b quarks are at high pT . We calculate gb → hb at next-to-leading order in QCD, and find that it is an order of magnitude larger than gg, qq̄ → bb̄h at the Fermilab Tevatron and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. This production mechanism improves the prospects for the discovery of a Higgs boson with enhanced coupling to the b quark.