Measurement of differential ZZ + jets production cross sections in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

Abstract

Diboson production in association with jets is studied in the fully leptonic final states, pp $\to$ (Z${\gamma }^{\ast }$)(Z/${\gamma }^{\ast }$) + jets $\to$ 2$\ell$2${\ell }^{\prime }$ + jets, ($\ell ,{\ell }^{\prime }$ = e or $\mu$) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb${}^{-1}$ collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Differential distributions and normalized differential cross sections are measured as a function of jet multiplicity, transverse momentum $p_{\mathrm{T}}$, pseudorapidity $\eta$, invariant mass and $\Delta \eta$ of the highest-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ and second-highest-$p_{\mathrm{T}}$ jets, and as a function of invariant mass of the four-lepton system for events with various jet multiplicities. These differential cross sections are compared with theoretical predictions that mostly agree with the experimental data. However, in a few regions we observe discrepancies between the predicted and measured values. Further improvement of the predictions is required to describe the ZZ + jets production in the whole phase space.

Replaced with the published version. Added the journal reference and the DOI. All the figures and tables can be found at http://cms-results.web.cern.ch/cms-results/public-results/publications/SMP-22-001 (CMS Public Pages)