Study of Higgs boson production and its b(b)over-bar decay in gamma-gamma processes in proton- nucleus collisions at the LHC

We explore for the first time the possibilities to measure an intermediate-mass (m(H) = 115-140 GeV/c(2)) standard model Higgs boson in electromagnetic proton-lead (pPb) interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) via its b (b) over bar decay. Using equivalent Weizsacker-Williams photon fluxes and Higgs effective field theory for the coupling gamma gamma -> H, we obtain a leading-order cross section of the order of 0.3 pb for exclusive Higgs production in elastic (pPb(gamma gamma)-> XHPb) and semielastic (pPb(gamma gamma)-> XHPb) processes at root(NN)-N-S = 8.8 TeV. After applying various kinematics cuts to remove the main backgrounds (gamma gamma -> b (b) over bar and misidentified gamma gamma -> q (q) over bar events), we find that a Higgs boson with m(H) = 120 GeV/c(2) could be observed in the b (b) over bar channel with a 3 sigma significance integrating 300 pb(-1) with an upgraded pA luminosity of 10(31) cm(-2) s(-1). We also provide for the first time semielastic Higgs cross sections, along with elastic t (t) over bar cross sections, for electromagnetic pp, pA and AA collisions at the LHC.