An intermediate-mass Higgs boson in two-photon coherent processes at the LHC

We reexamine the prospects of searching for a neutral Higgs boson in the intermediate-mass range, using the proton- and ion-beam facilities of the LHC to study coherent two-photon processes. Considering realistic design luminosities for the different ion beams, we find that beams of light-to-medium size ions like calcium will give the highest production rates. With a suitable trigger and assuming a b-quark identification efficiency of 30% and a bb mass resolution of 10 GeV one could expect to see a Higgs signal in the bb channel with a 3–4 σ statistical significance in the first phase of operation of the LHC with beams of calcium.