Measurement of the inclusive WZ production cross section in pp collisions at √s =13.6TeV

Abstract

The inclusive WZ production cross section is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6TeV, using data collected during 2022 with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34.7fb−1. The measurement uses multileptonic f inal states and a simultaneous likelihood fit to the number of events in four different lepton f lavour categories: eee, eeµ, µµe, and µµµ. The selection is optimized to minimize the number of background events, and relies on an efficient prompt lepton discrimination strategy. The WZ production cross section is measured in a phase space defined within a 30GeV window around the Z boson mass, as σtotal(pp → WZ) = 55.2±1.2(stat)±1.2(syst)±0.8(lumi)±0.3(theo)pb. In addition, the cross section is measured in a fiducial phase space closer to the detector level requirements. All the measurements presented in this paper are in agreement with standard model predictions.