Measurement of the production and differential cross sections of W+W− bosons in association with jets in p¯p collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

Abstract

We present a measurement of the W-boson-pair production cross section in p¯p collisions at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy and the first measurement of the differential cross section as a function of jet multiplicity and leading-jet energy. The W+W− cross section is measured in the final state comprising two charged leptons and neutrinos, where either charged lepton can be an electron or a muon. Using data collected by the CDF experiment corresponding to 9.7 fb−1 of integrated luminosity, a total of 3027 collision events consistent with W+W− production are observed with an estimated background contribution of 1790±190 events. The measured total cross section is σ(p¯p→W+W−)=14.0±0.6(stat)+1.2−1.0(syst)±0.8(lumi) pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.