Measurement of the b-hadron production cross section using decays to D*muX final states in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports a measurement of b-hadron production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector, revealing higher-than-predicted production rates with detailed differential measurements.

Contribution

It provides the first measurement of b-hadron production cross sections using D*muX final states at 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector, including differential cross sections as functions of pT and eta.

Findings

Measured cross section of 32.7 μb for pT>9 GeV and |eta|<2.5

Results are higher than NLO QCD predictions but within uncertainties

Differential cross sections as functions of transverse momentum and pseudorapidity

Abstract

The b-hadron production cross section is measured with the ATLAS detector in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using 3.3 pb^-1 of integrated luminosity, collected during the 2010 LHC run. The b-hadrons are selected by partially reconstructing D*muX final states. Differential cross sections are measured as functions of the transverse momentum and pseudorapidity. The measured production cross section for a b-hadron with pT>9 GeV and |eta|<2.5 is 32.7 pm 0.8 (stat) ^{+4.5}_{-6.8} (syst) ub, higher than the next-to-leading-order QCD predictions but consistent within the experimental and theoretical uncertainties.