The cross section for pair production of top quarks (t-tbar) with high transverse momenta is measured in pp collisions, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with sqrt(s) = 8 TeV in data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The measurement is performed using lepton+jets events, where one top quark decays semileptonically, while the second top quark decays to a hadronic final state. The hadronic decay is reconstructed as a single, large-radius jet, and identified as a top quark candidate using jet substructure techniques. The integrated cross section and the differential cross sections as a function of top quark pt and rapidity are measured at particle level within a fiducial region related to the detector-level requirements and at parton level. The particle-level integrated cross section is found to be sigma[t-tbar] = 0.499 +/- 0.035 (stat+syst) +/- 0.095 (theory) +/- 0.013 (lumi) pb for top quark pt > 400 GeV. The parton-level measurement is sigma[t-tbar] = 1.44 +/- 0.10 (stat+syst) +/- 0.29 (theory) +/- 0.04 (lumi) pb. The integrated and differential cross section results are compared to predictions from several event generators.
The per-event yield of the highest transverse momentum charged particle and charged-particle jet, integrated above a given pt(min) threshold starting at pt(min) = 0.8 and 1 GeV, respectively, is studied in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The particles and the jets are measured in the pseudorapidity ranges abs(eta) < 2.4 and 1.9, respectively. The data are sensitive to the momentum scale at which parton densities saturate in the proton, to multiple partonic interactions, and to other key aspects of the transition between the soft and hard QCD regimes in hadronic collisions.
A measurement of the underlying event (UE) activity in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV is performed using Drell--Yan events in a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.2 inverse femtobarns, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The activity measured in the muonic final state (q q-bar to opposite-sign muons) is corrected to the particle level and compared with the predictions of various Monte Carlo generators and hadronization models. The dependence of the UE activity on the dimuon invariant mass is well described by PYTHIA and HERWIG++ tunes derived from the leading jet/track approach, illustrating the universality of the UE activity. The UE activity is observed to be independent of the dimuon invariant mass in the region above 40 GeV, while a slow increase is observed with increasing transverse momentum of the dimuon system. The dependence of the UE activity on the transverse momentum of the dimuon system is accurately described by MADGRAPH, which simulates multiple hard emissions.
The cross section for dijet production in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV is presented as a function of xi, a variable that approximates the fractional momentum loss of the scattered proton in single-diffractive events. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 2.7 inverse nanobarns collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at low instantaneous luminosities, and uses events with jet transverse momentum of at least 20 GeV. The dijet cross section results are compared to the predictions of diffractive and nondiffractive models. The low-xi data show a significant contribution from diffractive dijet production, observed for the first time at the LHC. The associated rapidity gap survival probability is estimated.
A measurement is presented of the inelastic proton-proton cross section at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. Using the CMS detector at the LHC, the inelastic cross section is measured through two independent methods based on information from (i) forward calorimetry (for pseudorapidity 3 < abs(eta) < 5), in collisions where at least one proton loses more than 5E-6 of its longitudinal momentum, and (ii) the central tracker (abs(eta) < 2.4), in collisions containing an interaction vertex with more than 1, 2, or 3 tracks with transverse momenta pT > 200 MeV. The measurements cover a large fraction of the inelastic cross section for particle production over about 9 units of pseudorapidity and down to small transverse momenta. The results are compared with those of other experiments, and with models used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions.
The pseudorapidity distribution of charged hadrons in pp collisions at sqrt(s) =13 TeV is measured using a data sample obtained with the CMS detector, operated at zero magnetic field, at the CERN LHC. The yield of primary charged long-lived hadrons produced in inelastic pp collisions is determined in the central region of the CMS pixel detector (abs(eta)<2) using both hit pairs and reconstructed tracks. For central pseudorapidities (abs(eta)<0.5), the charged-hadron multiplicity density is dN/d(eta)[charged,abs(eta) < 0.5] = 5.49 +/- 0.01 (stat) +/- 0.17 (sys), a value obtained by combining the two methods. The result is compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators and to similar measurements made at lower collision energies.
A study of proton-proton collisions in which two b hadrons are produced in association with a Z boson is reported. The collisions were recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, for an integrated luminosity of 5.2 inverse femtobarns. The b hadrons are identified by means of displaced secondary vertices, without the use of reconstructed jets, permitting the study of b-hadron pair production at small angular separation. Differential cross sections are presented as a function of the angular separation of the b hadrons and the Z boson. In addition, inclusive measurements are presented. For both the inclusive and differential studies, different ranges of Z boson momentum are considered, and each measurement is compared to the predictions from different event generators at leading-order and next-to-leading-order accuracy.
A measurement of the underlying event (UE) activity in proton-proton collisions is performed using events with charged-particle jets produced in the central pseudorapidity region (abs(eta[jet]) < 2) and with transverse momentum 1<= pt[jet] < 100 GeV. The analysis uses a data sample collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 2.76 TeV with the CMS experiment at the LHC. The UE activity is measured as a function of pt[jet] in terms of the average multiplicity and scalar sum of transverse momenta (pt) of charged particles, with abs(eta) < 2 and pt > 0.5 GeV, in the azimuthal region transverse to the highest pt jet direction. By further dividing the transverse region into two regions of smaller and larger activity, various components of the UE activity are separated. The measurements are compared to previous results at 0.9 and 7 TeV, and to predictions of several Monte Carlo event generators, providing constraints on the modelling of the UE dynamics.
A measurement of the decorrelation of azimuthal angles between the two jets with the largest transverse momenta is presented for seven regions of leading jet transverse momentum up to 2.2 TeV. The analysis is based on the proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The dijet azimuthal decorrelation is caused by the radiation of additional jets and probes the dynamics of multijet production. The results are compared to fixed-order predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD), and to simulations using Monte Carlo event generators that include parton showers, hadronization, and multiparton interactions. Event generators with only two outgoing high transverse momentum partons fail to describe the measurement, even when supplemented with next-to-leading-order QCD corrections and parton showers. Much better agreement is achieved when at least three outgoing partons are complemented through either next-to-leading-order predictions or parton showers. This observation emphasizes the need to improve predictions for multijet production.
Measurements are reported of the normalized differential cross sections for top quark pair production with respect to four kinematic event variables: the missing transverse energy; the scalar sum of the jet transverse momentum (pT); the scalar sum of the pT of all objects in the event; and the pT of leptonically decaying W bosons from top quark decays. The data sample, collected using the CMS detector at the LHC, consists of 5.0 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and 19.7 inverse femtobarns at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. Top quark pair events containing one electron or muon are selected. The results are presented after correcting for detector effects to allow direct comparison with theoretical predictions. No significant deviations from the predictions of several standard model event simulation generators are observed.
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