Measurement of the differential cross sections for the associated production of a W boson and jets in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports precise measurements of how often W bosons are produced with jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, comparing results with advanced theoretical predictions to test the Standard Model.

Contribution

First measurement of differential cross sections for W+jets production at 13 TeV, providing detailed data for validating QCD calculations and Monte Carlo models.

Findings

Measured cross sections agree with theoretical predictions

Data constrains models of W boson and jet production

Results enhance understanding of Standard Model processes

Abstract

A measurement of the differential cross sections for a W boson produced in association with jets in the muon decay channel is presented. The measurement is based on 13 TeV proton-proton collision data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 inverse femtobarns, recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The cross sections are reported as functions of jet multiplicity, jet transverse momentum pT, jet rapidity, the scalar pT sum of the jets, and angular correlations between the muon and the jet for different jet multiplicities. The measured cross sections are in agreement with predictions that include multileg leading-order (LO) and next-to-LO matrix element calculations interfaced with parton showers, as well as a next-to-next-to-LO calculation for the W boson and one jet production.