A new method to distinguish hadronically decaying boosted Z bosons from W bosons using the ATLAS detector

Abstract

Altres ajuts: We thank CERN for the very successful operation of the LHC, as well as the support staff from our institutions without whom ATLAS could not be operated efficiently. We acknowledge the support of MINECO, Spain and EPLANET, ERC, FP7, Horizon 2020 and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, European Union. Funded by SCOAP3. ; The distribution of particles inside hadronic jets produced in the decay of boosted W and Z bosons can be used to discriminate such jets from the continuum background. Given that a jet has been identified as likely resulting from the hadronic decay of a boosted W or Z boson, this paper presents a technique for further differentiating Z bosons from W bosons. The variables used are jet mass, jet charge, and a b -tagging discriminant. A likelihood tagger is constructed from these variables and tested in the simulation of for bosons in the transverse momentum range 200 GeV 400 GeV in TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. For Z -boson tagging efficiencies of , 50, and , one can achieve -boson tagging rejection factors () of 1.7, 8.3 and 1000, respectively. It is not possible to measure these efficiencies in the data due to the lack of a pure sample of high , hadronically decaying Z bosons. However, the modelling of the tagger inputs for boosted W bosons is studied in data using a -enriched sample of events in 20.3 fb of data at TeV. The inputs are well modelled within uncertainties, which builds confidence in the expected tagger performance.