Search for ZH -> l+l- bbar production in 9.7 fb-1 of ppbar collisions with the D0 detector

We present a search for the standard model (SM) Higgs boson produced in association with a Z boson in 9.7 fb-1 of ppbar collisions collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV. Selected events contain one reconstructed Z -> e+e- or Z -> mu+mu- candidate and at least two jets, including at least one jet likely to contain a b quark. To validate the search procedure, we also measure the cross section for ZZ production, and find that it is consistent with the SM expectation. We set upper limits at the 95% C.L. on the product of the ZH production cross section and branching ratio B(H -> bbbar) for Higgs boson masses 90 <= M_H <= 150 GeV. The observed (expected) limit for M_H = 125 GeV is a factor of 7.1 (5.1) larger than the SM prediction.