Electroweak results at LHCb

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of W and Z boson production cross-sections in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV using the LHCb detector, and compares them with advanced theoretical predictions, confirming their consistency.

Contribution

First measurements of W and Z production cross-sections at LHCb at 7 TeV, with detailed comparison to next-to-next-to-leading order QCD predictions.

Findings

Measurements agree with theoretical predictions

Validates the use of LHCb for electroweak studies

Provides data for refining parton distribution functions

Abstract

$W$ and $Z$ production cross-sections have been measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV using the decays $W\rightarrow \mu \nu$, $Z\rightarrow \mu \mu$ and $Z\rightarrow \tau \tau$ collected by the LHCb detector. For all the measurements at least one of the reconstructed muons has a transverse momentum, $p_T$, above 20 GeV/$c$ and a pseudorapidity, $\eta$, between 2 and 4.5. In the case of the $Z$, a di-muon invariant mass between 60 GeV$/c^2$ and 120 GeV$/c^2$ is required. Theoretical predictions, calculated at next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD using recent parton distribution functions (PDFs), are found to be in agreement with the measurements.