Measurements of $ZZ\to \ell \ell \nu \nu$ and $ZZjj\to \ell \ell \nu \nu jj$ productions in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

This article presents measurements of $Z$ boson pair production cross-sections at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV, using 140 fb${}^{-1}$ of proton-proton data collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis includes both inclusive $ZZ$ production and $ZZ$ production in association with two jets ($ZZjj$), where one $Z$ boson decays into a pair of charged leptons ${\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ ($\ell =e,\mu$), and the other decays into a neutrino pair. The measured fiducial cross-section of the inclusive $ZZ$ production is $21.0\pm 1.0$ fb, while for the $ZZjj$ production it is $0.96_{-0.16}^{+0.18}$ fb. Extrapolation of the $ZZ$ cross-section to the full phase space, for $Z$ bosons within the mass range $66-116$~GeV, yields $\sigma (pp\to ZZ)=15.38\pm 0.81$ pb. Differential cross-sections are presented for an extended set of kinematic observables. The results are found to be in good agreement with Standard Model predictions. Constraints on anomalous gauge boson self-interactions are derived using both the vertex function formalism and the effective field theory framework.

arXiv comment55 pages in total, author list starting page 38, 12 figures, 9 tables, submitted to EPJC. All figures including auxiliary figures are available at https://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/STDM-2019-27/