Measurement of forward W and Z boson production in pp collisions at s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV

Abstract

Measurements are presented of electroweak boson production using data from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of s = 8 TeV. The analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb -1 recorded with the LHCb detector. The bosons are identified in the W and Z + -decay channels. The cross-sections are measured for muons in the pseudorapidity range 2.0 < < 4.5, with transverse momenta p T > 20 GeV/c and, in the case of the Z boson, a dimuon mass within 60 < M + -< 120 GeV/c 2 . The results are W + + = 1093.6 2.1 7.2 10.9 12.7 pb , W - - = 818.4 1.9 5.0 7.0 9.5 pb ,