Measurement of inclusive and differential cross sections for single top quark production in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV


Tumasyan A., Adam W., Andrejkovic J., Bergauer T., Chatterjee S., Damanakis K., ...More

Journal of High Energy Physics, vol.2023, no.7, 2023 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 2023 Issue: 7
  • Publication Date: 2023
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/jhep07(2023)046
  • Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Academic Search Premier, INSPEC, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals, Nature Index
  • Keywords: Hadron-Hadron Scattering, Top Physics
  • Yıldız Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

Measurements of the inclusive and normalised differential cross sections are presented for the production of single top quarks in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data used were recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC during 2016–2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. Events containing one electron and one muon in the final state are analysed. For the inclusive measurement, a multivariate discriminant, exploiting the kinematic properties of the events is used to separate the signal from the dominant tt¯ background. A cross section of 79.2±0.9stat−8.0+7.7syst±1.2lumi pb is obtained, consistent with the predictions of the standard model. For the differential measurements, a fiducial region is defined according to the detector acceptance, and the requirement of exactly one jet coming from the fragmentation of a bottom quark. The resulting distributions are unfolded to particle level and agree with the predictions at next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.