A measurement of the W boson helicity is presented, where the W boson originates from the decay of a top quark produced in pp collisions. The event selection, optimized for reconstructing a single top quark in the final state, requires exactly one isolated lepton (muon or electron) and exactly two jets, one of which is likely to originate from the hadronization of a bottom quark. The analysis is performed using data recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in 2012. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The measured helicity fractions are F[L] = 0.298 +/- 0.028 (stat) +\- 0.032 (syst), F[0] = 0.720 +/- 0.039 (stat) +/- 0.037 (syst), and F[R] = -0.018 +/- 0.019 (stat) +/- 0.011 (syst). These results are used to set limits on the real part of the tWb anomalous couplings, gL and gR.
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 production of a Z boson, decaying into two leptons and produced in association with one or more b jets, is studied using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were recorded in 2011 with the CMS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5 inverse femtobarns. The Z(ll) + b-jets cross sections (where ll = mu mu or ee) are measured separately for a Z boson produced with exactly one b jet and with at least two b jets. In addition, a cross section ratio is extracted for a Z boson produced with at least one b jet, relative to a Z boson produced with at least one jet. The measured cross sections are compared to various theoretical predictions, and the data favour the predictions in the five-flavour scheme, where b quarks are assumed massless. The kinematic properties of the reconstructed particles are compared with the predictions from the MADGRAPH event generator using the PYTHIA parton shower simulation.
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.
Forum