Search for Higgs bosons produced via vector-boson fusion and decaying into bottom quark pairs in root √s =13 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

A search for the bb¯ decay of the Standard Model Higgs boson produced through vector-boson fusion is presented. Three mutually exclusive channels are considered: two all-hadronic channels and a photon-associated channel. Results are reported from the analysis of up to 30.6  fb⁻¹ of pp data at √s =13  TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measured signal strength relative to the Standard Model prediction from the combined analysis is 2.5^+1.4_−1.3 for inclusive Higgs boson production and 3.0^+1.7_−1.6 for vector-boson fusion production only.