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A measurement of the W/Z cross section ratio as a function of hadronic activity with the ATLAS detector

Andrew Meade, University of Massachusetts Amherst

Abstract

Hadronic collisions at the LHC at CERN probe particle interactions at the highest energy scale of any experiment to date. We present a research program measuring Rjet = [special characters omitted] as a function of a number of hadronic variables. The measurements are performed with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, using the 2011 data set, consisting of 4.64 fb-1 of pp collisions at a center of mass energy of 7 TeV. This measurement is a robust way to test the Standard Model and the modeling of perturbative QCD, and is sensitive to a wide variety of possible new physics in events with high jet ET, including some variations of Supersymmetry. By taking the ratio of W/Z production, a large number of systematic uncertainties cancel, including those associated with luminosity, jet energy scale and resolution, and many theoretical uncertainties. The measurement of Rjet is performed as a function of the pT and rapidity of the 1st-4th leading jet, ST, HT, and a number of dijet variables, including invariant mass and angular separations. The measurements are compared with NLO theoretical predictions from BLACKH AT+SHERPA, as well as using leading order simulations from ALPGEN and SHERPA. Over most of the kinematic phase-space, there is good agreement between the data and theoretical predictions. There is a significant deviation for exactly one selected jet above 30 GeV, where LACKHAT+SHERPA over-estimates the ratio Rjet by 12%.

Subject Area

Particle physics

Recommended Citation

Meade, Andrew, "A measurement of the W/Z cross section ratio as a function of hadronic activity with the ATLAS detector" (2013). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI3589096.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI3589096

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