Measurement of the high-mass Drell--Yan differential cross-section in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper measures the high-mass Drell-Yan differential cross-section in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV using the ATLAS detector, comparing results to theoretical predictions and event generators.

Contribution

First measurement of the high-mass Drell-Yan differential cross-section at 7 TeV in the electron channel with detailed comparison to QCD predictions.

Findings

Measured cross-section in the 116-1500 GeV range.

Good agreement with next-to-next-to-leading order QCD calculations.

Provided data for tuning event generators.

Abstract

This Letter reports a measurement of the high-mass Drell-Yan differential cross-section in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV at the LHC. Based on an integrated luminosity of 4.9 /fb, the differential cross-section in the Z/gamma* to e+e- channel is measured with the ATLAS detector as a function of the invariant mass, Mee, in the range 116 < Mee < 1500 GeV, for a fiducial region in which both the electron and the positron have transverse momentum pT > 25 GeV and pseudorapidity eta < 2.5. A comparison is made to various event generators and to the predictions of perturbative QCD calculations at next-to-next-to-leading order.