Limits on neutral Higgs boson production in the forward region in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV

Limits on the cross-section times branching fraction for neutral Higgs bosons, produced in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, and decaying to two tau leptons with pseudorapidities between 2.0 and 4.5, are presented. The result is based on a dataset, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1, collected with the LHCb detector. Candidates are identified by reconstructing final states with two muons, a muon and an electron, a muon and a hadron, or an electron and a hadron. A model independent upper limit at the 95% confidence level is set on a neutral Higgs boson cross-section times branching fraction. It varies from 8.6 pb for a Higgs boson mass of 90 GeV to 0.7 pb for a Higgs boson mass of 250 GeV, and is compared to the Standard Model expectation. An upper limit on tan β in the Minimal Supersymmetric Model is set in the mmaxh0 scenario. It ranges from 34 for a CP -odd Higgs boson mass of 90 GeV to 70 for a pseudo-scalar Higgs boson mass of 140 GeV.