A first measurement of the top quark spin asymmetry, sensitive to the top quark polarisation, in t-channel single top quark production is presented. It is based on a sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse-femtobarns. A high-purity sample of t-channel single top quark events with an isolated muon is selected. Signal and background components are estimated using a fit to data. A differential cross section measurement, corrected for detector effects, of an angular observable sensitive to the top quark polarisation is performed. The differential distribution is used to extract a top quark spin asymmetry of 0.26 +/- 0.03 (stat) +/- 0.10 (syst), which is compatible with a p-value of 4.6% with the standard model prediction of 0.44.
The asymmetry $A_{\mu}$ extracted from the differential cross sections.
The production of Z bosons in pPb collisions at sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV is studied by the CMS experiment via the electron and muon decay channels. The inclusive cross section is compared to pp collision predictions, and found to scale with the number of elementary nucleon-nucleon collisions. The differential cross sections as a function of the Z boson rapidity and transverse momentum are measured. Though they are found to be consistent within uncertainty with theoretical predictions both with and without nuclear effects, the forward-backward asymmetry suggests the presence of nuclear effects at large rapidities. These results provide new data for constraining nuclear parton distribution functions.
Forward-backward asymmetry (AFB) distribution of the Z bosons in pPb collisions as a function of rapidity in the fiducial region for the combined leptonic decay channel.
The first study of W boson production in pPb collisions is presented, for bosons decaying to a muon or electron, and a neutrino. The measurements are based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.6 inverse nanobarns at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s[NN]) = 5.02 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment. The W boson differential cross sections, lepton charge asymmetry, and forward-backward asymmetries are measured for leptons of transverse momentum exceeding 25 GeV, and as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity in the abs(eta[lab]) < 2.4 range. Deviations from the expectations based on currently available parton distribution functions are observed, showing the need for including W boson data in nuclear parton distribution global fits.
Lepton charge asymmetry, $(N_{\ell}^+ - N_{\ell}^-)/(N_{\ell}^+ + N_{\ell}^-)$ as a function of the lepton pseudorapidity.
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