Measurement of the inclusive WZ production cross section in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13.6 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a precise measurement of the inclusive WZ production cross section at 13.6 TeV using CMS data, confirming consistency with Standard Model predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of WZ cross section at 13.6 TeV with optimized selection and multileptonic analysis in CMS data.

Findings

Measured total cross section: 55.2 pb with uncertainties.

Results agree with Standard Model predictions.

Used multileptonic final states and likelihood fit.

Abstract

The inclusive WZ production cross section is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV, using data collected during 2022 with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb$^{-1}$. The measurement uses multileptonic final states and a simultaneous likelihood fit to the number of events in four different lepton flavour categories: eee, ee$\mu$, $\mu\mu $e, and $\mu\mu\mu$. The selection is optimized to minimize the number of background events, and relies on an efficient prompt lepton discrimination strategy. The WZ production cross section is measured in a phase space defined within a 30 GeV window around the Z boson mass, as $\sigma_{\text{total}}$(pp $\to$ WZ) = 55.2 $\pm$ 1.2 (stat) $\pm$ 1.2 (syst) $\pm$ 0.8 (lumi) $\pm$ 0.3 (theo) pb. In addition, the cross section is measured in a fiducial phase space closer to the detector-level requirements. All the measurements presented in this paper are in agreement with standard model predictions.