Measurement of the production and differential cross sections of $W^{+}{W}^{-}$ bosons in association with jets in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=1.96$ TeV

Abstract

We present a measurement of the $W$-boson-pair production cross section in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at 1.96 TeV center-of-mass energy and the first measurement of the differential cross section as a function of jet multiplicity and leading-jet energy. The $W^{+}{W}^{-}$ cross section is measured in the final state comprising two charged leptons and neutrinos, where either charged lepton can be an electron or a muon. Using data collected by the CDF experiment corresponding to $9.7{\mathrm{fb}}^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity, a total of $3027$ collision events consistent with $W^{+}{W}^{-}$ production are observed with an estimated background contribution of $1790\pm 190$ events. The measured total cross section is $\ddot{I}ƒ(p\bar{p}\to W^{+}{W}^{-})=14.0\pm 0.6(\mathrm{stat}{)}_{-1.0}^{+1.2}(\mathrm{syst})\pm 0.8(\mathrm{lumi})$ pb, consistent with the standard model prediction.