The production of $W$ boson pairs in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$ 8 TeV is studied using data corresponding to 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected by the ATLAS detector during 2012 at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The $W$ bosons are reconstructed using their leptonic decays into electrons or muons and neutrinos. Events with reconstructed jets are not included in the candidate event sample. A total of 6636 $WW$ candidate events are observed. Measurements are performed in fiducial regions closely approximating the detector acceptance. The integrated measurement is corrected for all acceptance effects and for the $W$ branching fractions to leptons in order to obtain the total $WW$ production cross section, which is found to be 71.1$\pm1.1$(stat)$^{+5.7}_{-5.0}$(syst)$\pm1.4$ pb. This agrees with the next-to-next-to-leading-order Standard Model prediction of 63.2$^{+1.6}_{-1.4}$(scale)$\pm1.2$(PDF) pb. Fiducial differential cross sections are measured as a function of each of six kinematic variables. The distribution of the transverse momentum of the leading lepton is used to set limits on anomalous triple-gauge-boson couplings.
Measured production cross sections of WW production in the fiducial region for different final states corresponding to different W decay channels: both W's decaying into electrons or both decaying to muon. The cross sections are defined for direct decays of the W bosons into prompt electrons or muons, intermediate decays into tau leptons are disregarded. The electrons are required to be contained within abs(eta)<2.47 and to lie outside of 1.37 < abs(eta) < 1.53, muons are required to lie within abs(eta)<2.4. The leading and subleading leptons in the events are required to have a transverse momentum above 25 and 20 GeV respectively. The transverse momentum of the vectorial sum of the neutrinos in the event should be larger than 45 GeV (PT(C=SUM(NU))). The transverse momentum of the vectorial sum of the neutrinos multiplied by the sine of azimuthal difference between lepton and the vectorial sum of the neutrinos in the event should be larger than 45 GeV if the azimuthal difference between lepton and the vectorial sum of the neutrinos is smaller than PI/2. The invariant mass of the leptons should exceed 15 GeV. The absolute difference between the invariant mass of the leptons and the mass of the Z boson should be larger than 15 GeV. Particle-level jets are defined using the anti-kT algorithm with radius of 0.4. No jets above 25 GeV and within abs(eta)<4.5 are allowed in the event. Both, resonant and non-resonant WW production processes, are included in the cross sections.
Measured production cross section of WW production in the fiducial region in case one W boson decays into a prompt electron and the other one into a prompt muon. The cross section is defined for direct decays of the W bosons into prompt electrons or muons, intermediate decays into tau leptons are disregarded. The electrons are required to be contained within abs(eta)<2.47 and to lie outside of 1.37 < abs(eta) < 1.53, muons are required to lie within abs(eta)<2.4. The leading and subleading leptons in the events are required to have a transverse momentum above 25 and 20 GeV respectively. The transverse momentum of the vectorial sum of the neutrinos in the event should be larger than 20 GeV (PT(C=SUM(NU))). The transverse momentum of the vectorial sum of the neutrinos is multiplied by the sine of the azimuthal difference between lepton and the vectorial sum of the neutrinos if their azimuthal difference is smaller than PI/2. It is required to be larger than 15 GeV. The invariant mass of the leptons should exceed 10 GeV. Particle-level jets are defined using the anti-kT algorithm with radius of 0.4. No jets above 25 GeV and within abs(eta)<4.5 are allowed in the event. Both, resonant and non-resonant WW production processes, are included in the cross sections.
Measured total production cross sections of WW production in the total phase space. Both, resonant and non-resonant WW, production are considered as signal.
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