Higgs and background production in the reactione^ + e^ - to bbar b + 2 jets at LEPII and NLC energies

A complete tree-level Standard Model calculation of the reaction $e^ + e^ - to bbar b + 2$ jets in the energy range of LEPII and the Nexte ⁺e^? Linear Collider is presented. The 2-jet system represents either aq $bar q$ pair or two gluons. The matrix elements were calculated by means of the package CompHEP, and phase space integration and event generation were carried out with the computer programs BASES/SPRING. Cross sections of the Higgs boson, the total background and important subsets of background are studied as functions of the c.m.s. energy and the Higgs mass, taking into account possible interferences. Various event distributions calculated for realistic integrated luminosities indicate encouraging prospects regarding the extraction of the Higgs signal.