Standard Model Higgs Boson Searches through the 125 GeV Boson Discovery

Abstract: Searches for the standard model Higgs boson are reviewed from the 2 TeV run of the Tevatron with ~ 10 fb-1 of recorded data, and from the 7 and 8 TeV runs of the LHC, with ~ 5 and ~ 6 fb-1, respectively, i.e., until the July-2012 discovery of a new particle by the LHC experiments. The CMS and ATLAS Collaborations observe independently a new boson with mass ~ 125 GeV, mainly through its bosonic decays in gammagamma, ZZ, and W+W-, consistent with the standard model Higgs boson. The CDF and D0 experiments combine their results to see evidence of a similar particle produced in association with a vector boson and decaying fermionically in bbbar.