Measurements of the differential cross section for the Drell-Yan process, based on proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment, are presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 2.8 (2.3) fb$^{-1}$ in the dimuon (dielectron) channel. The total and fiducial cross section measurements are presented as a function of dilepton invariant mass in the range 15 to 3000 GeV, and compared with the perturbative predictions of the standard model. The measured differential cross sections are in good agreement with the theoretical calculations.
The production of Z bosons is studied in the dimuon and dielectron decay channels in PbPb and pp collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 2.76 TeV, using data collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The PbPb data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of about 150 inverse microbarns, while the pp data sample collected in 2013 at the same nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy has an integrated luminosity of 5.4 inverse picobarns. The Z boson yield is measured as a function of rapidity, transverse momentum, and collision centrality. The ratio of PbPb to pp yields, scaled by the number of inelastic nucleon-nucleon collisions, is found to be 1.06 +/- 0.05 (stat) +/- 0.08 (syst) in the dimuon channel and 1.02 +/- 0.08 (stat) +/- 0.15 (syst) in the dielectron channel, for centrality-integrated Z boson production. This binary collision scaling is seen to hold in the entire kinematic region studied, as expected for a colourless probe that is unaffected by the hot and dense QCD medium produced in heavy ion collisions.
The ratio of the top-quark branching fractions $R = B(t \to Wb)/B(t \to Wq)$, where the denominator includes the sum over all down-type quarks (q = b, s, d), is measured in the $t\bar{t}$ dilepton final state with proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV from an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse-femtobarns, collected with the CMS detector. In order to quantify the purity of the signal sample, the cross section is measured by fitting the observed jet multiplicity, thereby constraining the signal and background contributions. By counting the number of b jets per event, an unconstrained value of R = 1.014 $\pm$ 0.003 (stat) $\pm$ 0.032 (syst) is measured, in good agreement with the standard model prediction. A lower limit R greater than 0.955 at the 95% confidence level is obtained after requiring R lower than one, and a lower limit on the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element |$V_tb$| greater than 0.975 is set at 95% confidence level. The result is combined with a previous CMS measurement of the t-channel single-top-quark cross section to determine the top-quark total decay width, $\Gamma_t$ = 1.36 $\pm$ 0.02 (stat)$^{+0.14}_{-0.11}$ (syst) GeV.
Measurements are presented of the t-channel single-top-quark production cross section in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The results are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC. The cross section is measured inclusively, as well as separately for top (t) and antitop (t-bar), in final states with a muon or an electron. The measured inclusive t-channel cross section is sigma[t-ch] = 83.6 +/- 2.3 (stat.) +/- 7.4 (syst.) pb. The single t and t-bar cross sections are measured to be sigma[t-ch,t] = 53.8 +/- 1.5 (stat.) +/- 4.4 (syst.) pb and sigma[t-ch,t-bar] = 27.6 +/- 1.3 (stat.) +/- 3.7 (syst.) pb, respectively. The measured ratio of cross sections is R[t-ch] = sigma[t-ch,t]/sigma[t-ch,t-bar] = 1.95 +/- 0.10 (stat.) +/- 0.19 (syst.), in agreement with the standard model prediction. The modulus of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix element Vtb is extracted and, in combination with a previous CMS result at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, a value abs(Vtb) = 0.998 +/- 0.038 (exp.) +/- 0.016 (theo.) is obtained.
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