Measurement of the forward $Z$ boson production cross-section in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV

Abstract

A measurement of the production cross-section for $Z$ bosons that decay to muons is presented. The data were recorded by the LHCb detector during $pp$ collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb$^{-1}$. The cross-section is measured for muons in the pseudorapidity range $2.0 < η< 4.5$ with transverse momenta $p_{T} > 20$ GeV/c. The dimuon mass is restricted to $60 < M_{μ^{+}μ^{-}} < 120$ GeV/c$^{2}$. The measured cross-section is $$σ_{Z\rightarrowμ^{+}μ^{-}} = (76.0 \pm 0.3 \pm 0.5 \pm 1.0 \pm 1.3) \, \text{pb}$$ where the uncertainties are due to the sample size, systematic effects, the beam energy and the luminosity. This result is in good agreement with theoretical predictions at next-to-next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics. The cross-section is also measured differentially as a function of kinematic variables of the $Z$ boson. Ratios of the production cross-sections of electroweak bosons are presented using updated LHCb measurements of $W$ boson production. A precise test of the Standard Model is provided by the measurement of the ratio $$\frac{σ_{W^{+}\rightarrowμ^{+}ν_μ} + σ_{W^{-}\rightarrowμ^{-}\barν_μ}}{σ_{Z\rightarrowμ^{+}μ^{-}}} = 20.63\pm0.09\pm0.12\pm0.05,$$ where the uncertainty due to luminosity cancels.

New version in line with version accepted by JHEP. Small changes to the layout of figures. Results unchanged