Using qqZ Events to "Calibrate" Vector Boson Fusion at the LHC

Vector Boson Fusion (VBF) is a promising discovery level process in the Higgs search at the LHC. Nevertheless, that search depends on understanding the detector response to a good level of accuracy. Therefore, it is useful to have a known process by which to validate the search methodology. The VBF production of a Z with subsequent leptonic decay appears to be ideal in that the Feynman diagrams are the same for Z and Higgs VBF production and there is a clean resonance in the dilepton spectrum.