Cross-section measurements for the production of a $W$-boson in association with high-transverse-momentum jets in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$= 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed measurements of W-boson production with high-transverse-momentum jets in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV, comparing results with advanced theoretical predictions to test their accuracy.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive set of measurements in the collinear phase space for W+jets at 13 TeV, using large data sample and comparing with state-of-the-art theoretical models.

Findings

Measured differential distributions agree with NLO multi-leg merged Monte Carlo predictions.

Fixed-order NNLO calculations accurately describe the data in the collinear phase space.

Results help validate and improve theoretical models of W+jets production.

Abstract

A set of measurements for the production of a $W$-boson in association with high-transverse-momentum jets is presented using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements are performed in final states in which the $W$-boson decays into an electron or muon plus a neutrino and is produced in association with jets with $p_{\text{T}}>30$ GeV, where the leading jet has $p_{\text{T}}>500$ GeV. The angular separation between the lepton and the closest jet with $p_{\text{T}}>100$ GeV is measured and used to define a collinear phase space, wherein measurements of kinematic properties of the $W$-boson and the associated jet are performed. The collinear phase space is populated by dijet events radiating a $W$-boson and events with a $W$-boson produced in association with several jets and it serves as an excellent data sample to probe higher-order theoretical predictions. Measured differential distributions are compared with predictions from state-of-the-art next-to-leading order multi-leg merged Monte Carlo event generators and a fixed-order calculation of the $W$+1-jet process computed at next-to-next-to-leading order in the strong coupling constant.