Publication
Observation of photon-induced $W^+W^-$ production in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV using the ATLAS detector
| Summary: | This letter reports the observation of photon-induced production of $W$-boson pairs, $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow WW$. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of LHC proton-proton collision data taken at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the years 2015-2018. The measurement is performed selecting one electron and one muon, corresponding to the decay of the diboson system as $WW\rightarrow e^\pm\nu\mu^\mp\nu$ final state. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with a significance of well above 5 standard deviations consistent with the expectation from Monte Carlo simulation. A cross section for the $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow WW$ process of 3.13$\pm$0.31(stat.)$\pm$0.28(syst.) fb is measured in a fiducial volume close to the acceptance of the detector, by requiring an electron and a muon of opposite signs with large dilepton transverse momentum and exactly zero additional charged particles. This is found to be in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. |
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| Main Authors: | Fiolhais, M. C. N. |
| Other Authors: | Gonçalo, R.; Veloso, F.; Wolters, H.; ATLAS Collaboration |
| Subject: | High Energy Physics - Experiment; |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Country: | Portugal |
| Document type: | article |
| Access type: | open access |
| Associated institution: | Universidade de Coimbra |
| Language: | English |
| Origin: | Estudo Geral - Universidade de Coimbra |
| Summary: | This letter reports the observation of photon-induced production of $W$-boson pairs, $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow WW$. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of LHC proton-proton collision data taken at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV recorded by the ATLAS experiment during the years 2015-2018. The measurement is performed selecting one electron and one muon, corresponding to the decay of the diboson system as $WW\rightarrow e^\pm\nu\mu^\mp\nu$ final state. The background-only hypothesis is rejected with a significance of well above 5 standard deviations consistent with the expectation from Monte Carlo simulation. A cross section for the $\gamma\gamma\rightarrow WW$ process of 3.13$\pm$0.31(stat.)$\pm$0.28(syst.) fb is measured in a fiducial volume close to the acceptance of the detector, by requiring an electron and a muon of opposite signs with large dilepton transverse momentum and exactly zero additional charged particles. This is found to be in agreement with the Standard Model prediction. |
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