Measurement of the Z boson differential cross section in transverse momentum and rapidity in proton–proton collisions at 8 TeV

Abstract

We present a measurement of the Z boson differential cross section in rapidity and transverse momentum using a data sample of pp collision events at a centre-of-mass energy s=8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb?1. The Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of muons. The measurement provides a precision test of quantum chromodynamics over a large region of phase space. In addition, due to the small experimental uncertainties in the measurement the data has the potential to constrain the gluon parton distribution function in the kinematic regime important for Higgs boson production via gluon fusion. The results agree with the next-to-next-to-leading-order predictions computed with the FEWZ program. The results are also compared to the commonly used leading-order MADGRAPH and next-to-leading-order POWHEG generators ; California Earthquake Authority European Regional Development Fund Joint Institute for Nuclear Research Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission: Pakistan National Science and Technology Development Agency: Thailand Ministry of Science and Technology Fundacja na rzecz Nauki Polskiej Hispanics in Philanthropy Korea Research Council for Industrial Science and Technology California Department of Fish and Game Compagnia di San Paolo Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Qatar National Research Fund National Research Foundation Ministry of Science ICT and Future Planning Canadian Mathematical Society A.G. Leventis Foundation U.S. Department of Energy Academy of Finland Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior Ministerio de Educación y Cultura Türkiye Atom Enerjisi Kurumu Research Promotion Foundation: Cyprus National Science Foundation Science and Technology Facilities Council Austrian Science Fund Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Wirtschaft National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine Instituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India Department of Science and Technology, Government of Rajasthan Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico ?????????? ???? ??????????????? ???????????? (????) Belgian Federal Science Policy Office Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación European Commission Ministerstvo Školství, Mláde?e a T?lov?chovy National Institutes of Health: Hungary CERN Serbia Erzincan Üniversitesi NSC Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Santa Fe Institute Ministry of Education and Science Louisiana Academy of Sciences Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro State Fund for Fundamental Research of Ukraine: Ukraine CS Fund: Croatia Fuel Cell Technologies Program Ministry of Education Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences Foundation for Promotion of Material Science and Technology of Japan: Taipei College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York Human Growth Foundation Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo Secretaría de Educación Pública Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS National Natural Science Foundation of China Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung Hungarian Scientific Research Fund Universidade de Macau Rochester Academy of Science Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie Ministerstvo Školství, Mláde?e a T?lov?chovy European Regional Development Fund Ministero dell'Istruzione, dell'Università e della Ricerca: 20108T4XTM General Secretariat for Research and Technology European Research Council ; We congratulate our colleagues in the CERN accelerator departments for the excellent performance of the LHC and thank the technical and administrative staffs at CERN and at other CMS institutes for their contributions to the success of the CMS effort. In addition, we gratefully acknowledge the computing centers and personnel of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid for delivering so effectively the computing infrastructure essential to our analyses. Finally, we acknowledge the enduring support for the construction and operation of the LHC and the CMS detector provided by the following funding agencies: BMWFW and FWF (Austria); FNRS and FWO (Belgium); CNPq , CAPES , FAPERJ , and FAPESP (Brazil); MES (Bulgaria); CERN ; CAS , MOST , and NSFC (China); COLCIENCIAS (Colombia); MSES and CSF (Croatia); RPF (Cyprus); MoER , ERC IUT and ERDF (Estonia); Academy of Finland , MEC , and HIP (Finland); CEA and CNRS/IN2P3 (France); BMBF , DFG , and HGF (Germany); GSRT (Greece); OTKA and NIH (Hungary); DAE and DST (India); IPM (Iran); SFI (Ireland); INFN (Italy); MSIP and NRF (Republic of Korea); LAS (Lithuania); MOE and UM (Malaysia); CINVESTAV , CONACYT , SEP , and UASLP-FAI (Mexico); MBIE (New Zealand); PAEC (Pakistan); MSHE and NSC (Poland); FCT (Portugal); JINR (Dubna); MON , RosAtom , RAS and RFBR (Russia); MESTD (Serbia); SEIDI and CPAN (Spain); Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland); MST (Taipei); ThEPCenter , IPST , STAR and NSTDA (Thailand); TUBITAK and TAEK (Turkey); NASU and SFFR (Ukraine); STFC (United Kingdom); DOE and NSF (USA). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie program and the European Research Council and EPLANET (European Union); the Leventis Foundation ; the A.P. Sloan Foundation ; the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; the Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium); the Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium); the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of the Czech Republic; the Council of Science and Industrial Research , India; the HOMING PLUS program of the Foundation for Polish Science , cofinanced from European Union, Regional Development Fund ; the Compagnia di San Paolo (Torino); the Consorzio per la Fisica (Trieste); MIUR project 20108T4XTM (Italy); the Thalis and Aristeia programs cofinanced by EU- ESF and the Greek NSRF ; and the National Priorities Research Program by Qatar National Research Fund .