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Title: Ratios of W and Z cross sections at large boson $$p_T$$ as a constraint on PDFs and background to new physics

Journal Article · · Journal of High Energy Physics (Online)
 [1];  [2]
  1. Rockefeller Univ., New York, NY (United States)
  2. Universitat Zurich (Switzerland)

We motivate a measurement of various ratios of W and Z cross sections at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at large values of the boson transverse momentum (p T ≳ M W,Z ). We study the dependence of predictions for these cross-section ratios on the multiplicity of associated jets, the boson p T and the LHC centre-of-mass energy. We present the flavour decomposition of the initial-state partons and an evaluation of the theoretical uncertainties. We also show that the W + /W - ratio is sensitive to the up-quark to down-quark ratio of parton distribution functions (PDFs), while other theoretical uncertainties are negligible, meaning that a precise measurement of the W + /W - ratio at large boson p T values could constrain the PDFs at larger momentum fractions x than the usual inclusive W charge asymmetry. The W ± /Z ratio is insensitive to PDFs and most other theoretical uncertainties, other than possibly electroweak corrections, and a precise measurement will therefore be useful in validating theoretical predictions needed in data-driven methods, such as using W (→ ℓν) + jets events to estimate the Z(→ νν¯) + jets background in searches for new physics at the LHC. Furthermore, the differential W and Z cross sections themselves, dσ/dp T , have the potential to constrain the gluon distribution, provided that theoretical uncertainties from higher-order QCD and electroweak corrections are brought under control, such as by inclusion of anticipated next-to-next-to-leading order QCD corrections.

Research Organization:
Fermi National Accelerator Lab. (FNAL), Batavia, IL (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-07CH11359
OSTI ID:
1226265
Report Number(s):
FERMILAB-PUB-13-106-PPD; arXiv eprint number arXiv:1304.2424
Journal Information:
Journal of High Energy Physics (Online), Vol. 2014, Issue 25; ISSN 1029-8479
Publisher:
Springer BerlinCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 24 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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QCD analysis of the CMS inclusive differential Z production data at s = 8 TeV journal August 2016
The impact of the LHC Z-boson transverse momentum data on PDF determinations text January 2017
Precise predictions for $$V+$$ V + jets dark matter backgrounds journal December 2017
The impact of the LHC Z-boson transverse momentum data on PDF determinations journal July 2017
Phenomenology of the Z-boson plus jet process at NNLO text January 2016
HERAFitter: Open source QCD fit project journal July 2015
Can New Physics hide inside the proton? text January 2019
Pinning down the large-x gluon with NNLO top-quark pair differential distributions text January 2016
Pinning down the large-x gluon with NNLO top-quark pair differential distributions text January 2017
QCD and strongly coupled gauge theories: challenges and perspectives journal October 2014
HERAFitter : Open Source QCD Fit Project text January 2015
QCD and Strongly Coupled Gauge Theories: Challenges and Perspectives text January 2014
Precise predictions for V plus jets dark matter backgrounds text January 2017