Measurement of associated production of a W boson and a charm quark in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

CMS Collaboration

Paper

Measurement of associated production of a W boson and a charm quark in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV

Abstract

Measurements are presented of associated production of a W boson and a charm quark (W+c) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.7 fb

collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The W bosons are identified by their decay into a muon and a neutrino. The charm quarks are tagged via the full reconstruction of D

(2010)

mesons that decay via D

(2010)

. A cross section is measured in the fiducial region defined by the muon transverse momentum

26 GeV, muon pseudorapidity

2.4, and charm quark transverse momentum

5 GeV. The inclusive cross section for this kinematic range is

(W+c) = 1026

31 (stat)

(syst) pb. The cross section is also measured differentially as a function of the pseudorapidity of the muon from the W boson decay. These measurements are compared with theoretical predictions and are used to probe the strange quark content of the proton.