Measurement of the production and differential cross sections of $W^{+}W^{-}$ bosons in association with jets in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise measurement of W-boson pair production cross section and its differential distribution in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, using data from the CDF experiment, confirming Standard Model predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of the differential cross section of W+W- production as a function of jet multiplicity and leading-jet energy at Tevatron energies.

Findings

Total W+W- cross section measured as 14.0 pb with uncertainties.

Results are consistent with Standard Model predictions.

First differential measurement of W+W- production in this energy regime.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the $W$-boson-pair production cross section in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy and the first measurement of the differential cross section as a function of jet multiplicity and leading-jet energy. The $W^{+}W^{-}$ cross section is measured in the final state comprising two charged leptons and neutrinos, where either charged lepton can be an electron or a muon. Using data collected by the CDF experiment corresponding to $9.7~\rm{fb}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, a total of $3027$ collision events consistent with $W^{+}W^{-}$ production are observed with an estimated background contribution of $1790\pm190$ events. The measured total cross section is $\sigma(p\bar{p} \rightarrow W^{+}W^{-}) = 14.0 \pm 0.6~(\rm{stat})^{+1.2}_{-1.0}~(\rm{syst})\pm0.8~(\rm{lumi})$ pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.