Measurement of the production cross section for W- and Z-bosons in association with jets in ATLAS

TL;DR

This paper presents measurements of W+jets and Z+jets production cross sections at 7 TeV in proton-proton collisions, comparing results with perturbative QCD predictions, including the first NLO comparison for W+3jets.

Contribution

It provides the first comparison of W+3jets cross section with next-to-leading order calculations in proton-proton collisions.

Findings

Measured cross sections as functions of jet multiplicity, jet pT, and HT.

Ratios of cross sections are also reported.

Comparison with perturbative QCD predictions shows good agreement.

Abstract

We report on the measurements of inclusive W+jets and Z+jets cross sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector. Cross sections, in both the electron and muon decay modes of the bosons, are presented as a function of jet multiplicity, the transverse momentum of the jets and the quantity HT which is the scalar sum of the pT in the event. Measurements are also presented of the ratios of cross sections. The measured cross sections are compared to different particle-level predictions, based on perturbative QCD, where the measured W+3jet cross section is for the first time compared with next-to-leading order calculations.