Measurement of the W+W- Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV using Dilepton Events

TL;DR

This paper reports a measurement of the W+W- production cross section in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, using dilepton decay channels, with results consistent with Standard Model predictions.

Contribution

First measurement of W+W- production cross section at 1.96 TeV using dilepton events in proton-antiproton collisions.

Findings

Measured cross section: 14.6 pb with uncertainties.

Observed 17 candidate events against 5 expected background.

Results agree with Standard Model expectations.

Abstract

We present a measurement of the W+W- production cross section using 184/pb of ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab. Using the dilepton decay channel W+W- -> l+l-vvbar, where the charged leptons can be either electrons or muons, we find 17 candidate events compared to an expected background of 5.0+2.2-0.8 events. The resulting W+W- production cross section measurement of sigma(ppbar -> W+W-) = 14.6 +5.8 -5.1 (stat) +1.8 -3.0 (syst) +-0.9 (lum) pb agrees well with the Standard Model expectation.