Type: Article
Publication Date: 2014-05-14
Citations: 112
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.112.191802
A measurement of total and fiducial inclusive W and Z boson production cross sections in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV is presented. Electron and muon final states are analyzed in a data sample collected with the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.2 +/- 0.5 inverse picobarns. The measured total inclusive cross sections times branching fractions are sigma(pp to W X) B(W to l nu) = 12.21 +/- 0.03 (stat.) +/- 0.24 (syst.) +/- 0.32 (lum.) nb and sigma(pp to Z X) B(Z to l+ l-) = 1.15 +/- 0.01 (stat.) +/- 0.02 (syst.) +/- 0.03 (lum.) nb for the dilepton mass in the range of 60 to 120 GeV. The measured values agree with next-to-next-to-leading-order QCD cross section calculations. Ratios of cross sections are reported with a precision of 2%. This is the first measurement of inclusive W and Z boson production in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV.