Measurement of the production cross section for a W boson in association with a charm quark in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV

Measurement of the production cross section for a W boson in association with a charm quark in proton-proton collisions at s√ = 13 TeV

Authors: CMS Collaboration et al

Abstract: The strange quark content of the proton is probed through the measurement of the production cross section for a W boson and a charm (c) quark in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. The W bosons are identified through their leptonic decays to an electron or a muon, and a neutrino. Charm jets are tagged using the presence of a muon or a secondary vertex inside the jet. The W+c production cross section and the cross section ratio R±c = σ(W++c¯) / σ(W−+c) are measured inclusively and differentially as functions of the transverse momentum and the pseudorapidity of the lepton originating from the W boson decay. The precision of the measurements is improved with respect to previous studies, reaching 1% in R±c. The precision of the measurements is improved with respect to previous studies, reaching 1% in R±c = 0.950 ± 0.005 (stat) ± 0.010 (syst). The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions up to next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.

Article on arxiv.org