Application of expert discriminants to searches for a standard model Higgs boson in the missing transverse energy plus two $b$-quark final state at CDF

We present a search for the associated production of a $W$ or $Z$ boson and a standard model Higgs boson, where the final state consists of a large amount of missing transverse energy and two jets consistent with the decay of the Higgs boson ($H \rightarrow bb$). This channel is among the most sensitive for Higgs masses below 135 GeV/c$^2$. In the context of this search, we explore the use of expert discriminants, multivariate discriminants trained to distinguish the signal processes from individual backgrounds, and various methods for combining them into a final discriminant to improve the overall search sensitivity.