We report two complementary measurements of the WW+WZ cross section in the final state consisting of an electron or muon, missing transverse energy, and jets, performed using p\bar{p} collision data at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected by the CDF II detector. The first method uses the dijet invariant mass distribution while the second more sensitive method uses matrix-element calculations. The result from the second method has a signal significance of 5.4 sigma and is the first observation of WW+WZ production using this signature. Combining the results gives sigma_{WW+WZ} = 16.0 +/- 3.3 pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.
We present a measurement of the cross section for $Z$ production times the branching fraction to $\tau$ leptons, $\sigma \cdot$Br$(Z\to \tau^+ \tau^-)$, in $p \bar p$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$1.96 TeV in the channel in which one $\tau$ decays into $\mu \nu_{\mu} \nu_{\tau}$, and the other into $\rm {hadrons} + \nu_{\tau}$ or $e \nu_e \nu_{\tau}$. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 226 pb$^{-1}$ collected with the D{\O}detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The final sample contains 2008 candidate events with an estimated background of 55%. From this we obtain $\sigma \cdot$Br$(Z \to \tau^+ \tau^-)=237 \pm 15$(stat)$\pm 18$(sys)$ \pm 15$(lum) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction.
We report the first measurement of the cross section for Z boson pair production at a hadron collider. This result is based on a data sample corresponding to 1.9 fb-1 of integrated luminosity from ppbar collisions at sqrt{s} = 1.96 TeV collected with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. In the llll channel, we observe three ZZ candidates with an expected background of 0.096^{+0.092}_{-0.063} events. In the llnunu channel, we use a leading-order calculation of the relative ZZ and WW event probabilities to discriminate between signal and background. In the combination of llll and llnunu channels, we observe an excess of events with a probability of $5.1\times 10^{-6}$ to be due to the expected background. This corresponds to a significance of 4.4 standard deviations. The measured cross section is sigma(ppbar -> ZZ) = 1.4^{+0.7}_{-0.6} (stat.+syst.) pb, consistent with the standard model expectation.
The Standard Model predictions for $W\gamma$ and $Z\gamma$ production are tested using an integrated luminosity of 200 pb$^{-1}$ of \ppbar collision data collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross sections are measured selecting leptonic decays of the $W$ and $Z$ bosons, and photons with transverse energy $E_T>7$ GeV that are well separated from leptons. The production cross sections and kinematic distributions for the $W\gamma$ and $Z\gamma$ are compared to SM predictions.
We present a measurement of the forward-backward charge asymmetry ($A_{FB}$) in $p\bar{p} \to Z/\gamma^{*}+X \to e^+e^-+X$ events at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV using 1.1 fb$^{-1}$ of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. $A_{FB}$ is measured as a function of the invariant mass of the electron-positron pair, and found to be consistent with the standard model prediction. We use the $A_{FB}$ measurement to extract the effective weak mixing angle sin$^2\Theta^{eff}_W = 0.2327 \pm 0.0018 (stat.) \pm 0.0006 (syst.)$.
We present a measurement of the cross section for Z boson production times the branching fraction to tau lepton pairs sigma(ppbar -> Z + X) Br(Z -> tau+ tau-) in proton-antiproton collisions at center of mass energy 1.96 TeV. The measurement is performed in the channel in which one tau lepton decays into a muon and neutrinos, and the other tau lepton decays hadronically or into an electron and neutrinos. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 inverse fb collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. The sample contains 1511 candidate events with an estimated 20% background from jets or muons misidentified as tau leptons. We obtain sigma Br = 240 +/- 8 (stat) +/- 12 (sys) +/- 15 (lum) pb, which is consistent with the standard model prediction.
We present measurements of the process $p\bar{p} \to WZ+X \to \ell^{\prime} \nu_{\ell^{\prime}} \ell \bar{\ell}$ at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV, where $\ell$ and $\ell^{\prime}$ are electrons or muons. Using 1 fb$^{-1}$ of data from the D0 experiment, we observe 13 candidates with an expected background of $4.5\pm0.6$ events and measure a cross section $\sigma(WZ)=2.7^{+1.7}_{-1.3}$ pb. From the number of observed events and the $Z$ boson transverse momentum distribution, we limit the trilinear $WWZ$ gauge couplings to $-0.17 \le \lambda_Z \le 0.21$ $(\Delta \kappa_Z = 0)$ at the 95% C.L. for a form factor scale $\Lambda=2$ TeV. Further, assuming that $\Delta g^Z_1 = \Delta\kappa_Z$, we find $-0.12 \le \Delta\kappa_Z \le 0.29$ $(\lambda_Z=0)$ at the 95% C.L. These are the most restrictive limits on the $WWZ$ couplings available to date.
First measurements of the W -> lnu and Z/gamma* -> ll (l = e, mu) production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV are presented using data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The results are based on 2250 W -> lnu and 179 Z/gamma* -> ll candidate events selected from a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of approximately 320 nb-1. The measured total W and Z/gamma*-boson production cross sections times the respective leptonic branching ratios for the combined electron and muon channels are $\stotW$ * BR(W -> lnu) = 9.96 +- 0.23(stat) +- 0.50(syst) +- 1.10(lumi) nb and $\stotZg$ * BR(Z/gamma* -> ll) = 0.82 +- 0.06(stat) +- 0.05(syst) +- 0.09(lumi) nb (within the invariant mass window 66 < m_ll < 116 GeV). The W/Z cross-section ratio is measured to be 11.7 +- 0.9(stat) +- 0.4(syst). In addition, measurements of the W+ and W- production cross sections and of the lepton charge asymmetry are reported. Theoretical predictions based on NNLO QCD calculations are found to agree with the measurements.
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