Measurement of the $WZ$ Cross Section and Triple Gauge Couplings in $p \bar p$ Collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 1.96$ TeV

This Letter describes the current most precise measurement of the $WZ$ production cross section as well as limits on anomalous $WWZ$ couplings at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions for the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). $WZ$ candidates are reconstructed from de...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Collaboration, CDF, Aaltonen, T, González, B, Amerio, S, Amidei, D, Anastassovx, A, Annovi, A, Antos, J, Apollinari, G, Appel, J, Arisawa, T, Artikov, A, Asaadi, J, Ashmanskas, W, Auerbach, B, Aurisano, A, Azfar, F, Badgett, W, Bae, T, Barbaro-Galtieri, A, Barnes, V, Barnett, B, Barriahh, P, Bartos, P, Bauce, M
Format: Journal article
Language:English
Published: 2012
Description
Summary:This Letter describes the current most precise measurement of the $WZ$ production cross section as well as limits on anomalous $WWZ$ couplings at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions for the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). $WZ$ candidates are reconstructed from decays containing three charged leptons and missing energy from a neutrino, where the charged leptons are either electrons or muons. Using data collected by the CDF II detector (7.1 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity), 63 candidate events are observed with the expected background contributing $8 \pm 1$ events. The measured total cross section $\sigma (p \bar p \to WZ) = 3.93_{-0.53}^{+0.60}(\text{stat})_{-0.46}^{+0.59}(\text{syst}) $ pb is in good agreement with the standard model prediction of $3.50\pm 0.21$. The same sample is used to set limits on anomalous $WWZ$ couplings.