First observation of forward Z→bb¯ production in pp collisions at s=8 TeV

R. Aaij, B. Adeva, M. Adinolfi, Z. Ajaltouni, S. Akar, J. Albrecht, F. Alessio, M. Alexander, A. Alfonso Albero, S. Ali, G. Alkhazov, P. Alvarez Cartelle, A. A. Alves, S. Amato, S. Amerio, Y. Amhis, L. An, L. Anderlini, G. Andreassi, M. AndreottiJ. E. Andrews, R. B. Appleby, F. Archilli, P. d'Argent, J. Arnau Romeu, A. Artamonov, M. Artuso, I. Babuschkin, W. Barter, A. Bitadze, S. Borghi, J. Brodzicka, C. Burr, L. Capriotti, S. De Capua, G. Dujany, E. Gersabeck, M. Gersabeck, L. Grillo, J. Harrison, C. Hombach, S. Klaver, G. Lafferty, K. Maguire, A. McNab, C. Parkes, A. Pearce, E. Rodrigues, P. Rodriguez Perez, G. Sarpis, LHCb Collaboration

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    The decay Z→bb¯ is reconstructed in pp collision data, corresponding to 2 fb−1 of integrated luminosity, collected by the LHCb experiment at a centre-of-mass energy of s=8 TeV. The product of the Z production cross-section and the Z→bb¯ branching fraction is measured for candidates in the fiducial region defined by two particle-level b-quark jets with pseudorapidities in the range 2.2<η<4.2, with transverse momenta pT>20 GeV and dijet invariant mass in the range 45<mjj<165 GeV. From a signal yield of 5462±763 Z→bb¯ events, where the uncertainty is statistical, a production cross-section times branching fraction of 332±46±59 pb is obtained, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. The measured significance of the signal yield is 6.0 standard deviations. This measurement represents the first observation of the Z→bb¯ production in the forward region of pp collisions.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)430-439
    Number of pages10
    JournalPhysics Letters, Section B: Nuclear, Elementary Particle and High-Energy Physics
    Volume776
    Early online date5 Dec 2017
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 10 Jan 2018

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