Measurement of the $\phi^*_\eta$ distribution of muon pairs with masses between 30 and 500 GeV in 10.4 fb$^{-1}$ of $p\bar{p}$ collisions

TL;DR

This paper reports the first measurements of the $\,\,\phi^*_\,\eta$ distribution for muon pairs with masses between 30 and 500 GeV, using Fermilab Tevatron data, providing insights into QCD effects beyond the Z boson mass peak.

Contribution

It presents the first collider measurements of the $\,\phi^*_\,\eta$ distribution for dilepton masses away from the Z peak, using a large dataset and correcting for detector effects.

Findings

Data agree with QCD predictions based on soft gluon resummation.

Provides new insights into QCD effects at different mass scales.

First measurement of $\,\phi^*_\,\eta$ distribution for off-peak dilepton masses.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the distribution of the variable $\phi^*_\eta$ for muon pairs with masses between 30 and 500 GeV, using the complete Run II data set collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron proton-antiproton collider. This corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 10.4 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.96 TeV. The data are corrected for detector effects and presented in bins of dimuon rapidity and mass. The variable $\phi^*_\eta$ probes the same physical effects as the $Z/\gamma^*$ boson transverse momentum, but is less susceptible to the effects of experimental resolution and efficiency. These are the first measurements at any collider of the $\phi^*_\eta$ distributions for dilepton masses away from the $Z\rightarrow \ell^+\ell^-$ boson mass peak. The data are compared to QCD predictions based on the resummation of multiple soft gluons.