Measurements of $W$ and $Z$ boson production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=5.02$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports measurements of W and Z boson production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 5.02 TeV using the ATLAS detector, providing data that align well with theoretical predictions and serve as references for heavy-ion collision studies.

Contribution

First measurements of W and Z boson production cross sections at 5.02 TeV in proton-proton collisions with detailed analysis and comparison to QCD calculations.

Findings

Measured cross sections for W+ and W- bosons.

Measured Z boson production cross section.

Results agree with next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD predictions.

Abstract

Measurements of fiducial integrated and differential cross sections for inclusive $W^+$, $W^-$ and $Z$ boson production are reported. They are based on $25.0 \pm 0.5$ pb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 5.02$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Electron and muon decay channels are analysed, and the combined $W^+$, $W^-$ and $Z$ integrated cross sections are found to be $\sigma_{W^+}$ = 2266 $\pm$ 9 (stat) $\pm$ 29 (syst) $\pm$ 43 (lumi) pb, $\sigma_{W^-}$ = 1401 $\pm$ 7 (stat) $\pm$ 18 (syst) $\pm$ 27 (lumi) pb, and $\sigma_Z$ = 374.5 $\pm$ 3.4 (stat) $\pm$ 3.6 (syst) $\pm$ 7.0 (lumi) pb, in good agreement with next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD cross-section calculations. These measurements serve as references for Pb+Pb interactions at the LHC at this nucleon--nucleon centre-of-mass energy.