Measurement of the b-jet cross-section with associated vector boson production with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper reports a measurement of the cross-section for vector boson production with b-jet associated production at the LHC, testing pQCD predictions and informing Higgs search backgrounds.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of V+b production cross-sections at 35 pb-1, comparing results with next-to-leading order theoretical predictions.

Findings

Measured cross-sections in electron and muon channels.

Discrepancies observed between measurements and some theoretical predictions.

Results help refine background estimates for Higgs searches.

Abstract

A measurement of the cross-section for vector boson production in association with jets containing b-hadrons is presented using 35 pb-1 of data from the LHC collected by the ATLAS experiment in 2010. Such processes are not only important tests of pQCD but also large, irreducible backgrounds to searches such as a low mass Higgs boson decaying to pairs of b-quarks when the Higgs is produced in association with a vector boson. Theoretical predictions of the V+b production rate have large uncertainties and previous measurements have reported discrepancies. Cross-sections measured using in the electron and muon channels will be shown. Comparisons will be made to recent theoretical predictions at the next-to-leading order in alpha_s.