# Observation of single top quark production in association with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

## TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of single top quark production with a Z boson in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, confirming the standard model prediction with high significance.

## Contribution

It presents the first observation of tZq production at 13 TeV with improved analysis techniques and a large dataset, providing a precise measurement of the cross section.

## Key findings

- tZq production observed with over five sigma significance
- Measured cross section of 111 ± 13 (stat) +11/-9 (syst) fb
- Results are consistent with standard model predictions

## Abstract

The observation of single top quark production in association with a Z boson and a quark (tZq) is reported. Events from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV containing three charged leptons (either electrons or muons) and at least two jets are analyzed. The data were collected with the CMS detector in 2016 and 2017, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 77.4 fb$^{-1}$. The increased integrated luminosity, a multivariate lepton identification, and a redesigned analysis strategy improve significantly the sensitivity of the analysis compared to previous searches for tZq production. The tZq signal is observed with a significance well over five standard deviations. The measured tZq production cross section is $\sigma$(pp $\to$ tZq $\to$ t$\ell^{+} \ell^{-}$q) = 111 $\pm$ 13 (stat) $ _{-9}^{+11}$ (syst) fb, for dilepton invariant masses above 30 GeV, in agreement with the standard model expectation.