Precision Measurements of the Electroweak Mixing Angle in the Region of the Z pole

TL;DR

This paper reviews techniques for precision measurement of the electroweak mixing angle at the Z pole, introduces a new highly precise measurement from CMS data, and discusses future prospects for LHC measurements.

Contribution

It presents the most precise single measurement of $ heta^ ext{eff}_ ext{lept}$ from CMS data, utilizing advanced PDF profiling and additional measurements.

Findings

Most precise measurement of $ heta^ ext{eff}_ ext{lept}$ to date: 0.23156±0.00024

Measurement is in excellent agreement with the Standard Model prediction

Enhanced techniques reduce uncertainties from Parton Distribution Functions

Abstract

We review the current status and techniques used in precision measurements of the effective leptonic weak mixing angle $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ (a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model (SM)) in the region of the Z pole with emphasis on hadron colliders. We also build on these techniques to extract the most precise single measurement to date of $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ from a new analysis of the published forward-backward asymmetry ($A_{\rm FB}$) in Drell-Yan dielpton production in proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy of 13 TeV measured by the CMS collaboration at the large hadron collider. The uncertainty in $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ published by CMS is dominated by uncertainties in Parton Distribution Functions (PDFs), which are reduced by PDF profiling using the dilepton mass dependence of $A_{\rm FB}$. Our new extraction of $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ from the CMS values of $A_{\rm FB}$ includes profiling with additional new CMS measurements of the $W$-boson decay lepton asymmetry, and W/Z cross section ratio at 13 TeV. We obtain the most precise single measurement of $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ to date of 0.23156$\pm$0.00024, which is in excellent agreement with the SM prediction of 0.23161$\pm$0.00004. We also discuss outlook for future measurements at the LHC including more precise measurements of $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$, a measurement of $\sin^2\theta^\ell_{\rm eff}$ for b-quarks in the initial state, and a measurement of the running of $\sin^2\theta^{\overline{\rm MS}}(\mu)$ up to 3 TeV.