Abstract
The observation of the standard model (SM) Higgs boson decay to a pair of bottom quarks is presented. The main contribution to this result is from processes in which Higgs bosons are produced in association with a $W$ or $Z$ boson $(VH)$, and are searched for in final states including 0, 1, or 2 charged leptons and two identified bottom quark jets. The results from the measurement of these processes in a data sample recorded by the CMS experiment in 2017, comprising $41.3 fb^{−1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt s =13 TeV$, are described. When combined with previous VH measurements using data collected at $\sqrt s=7$,$8$, and $13 TeV$, an excess of events is observed at $m_H=125 GeV$ with a significance of 4.8 standard deviations, where the expectation for the SM Higgs boson is 4.9. The corresponding measured signal strength is $1.01±0.22$. The combination of this result with searches by the CMS experiment for$ H→b\bar b$ in other production processes yields an observed (expected) significance of 5.6 (5.5) standard deviations and a signal strength of $1.04±0.20$.