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CMS-PAS-TOP-16-017
Measurement of the top pair-production in association with a W or Z boson in pp collisions at 13 TeV
Abstract: We present a measurement of the cross section of top quark pairs produced in association with a W or Z boson, in proton-proton collisions at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data sample used corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 12.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected in 2016. The measurement is performed in same-sign, three- and four-lepton final states where the jet and b-jet multiplicities are exploited to enhance the signal-to-background ratio. The $\mathrm{t\overline{t}W}$ and $\mathrm{t\overline{t}Z}$ production cross sections are measured to be $\sigma(\mathrm{t\overline{t}Z})= $ 0.70 $^{+0.16}_{-0.15}$ (stat) $^{+0.14}_{-0.12}$ (syst) pb and $\sigma(\mathrm{t\overline{t}W})=$ 0.98 $^{+0.23}_{-0.22}$ (stat) $^{+0.22}_{-0.18}$ (syst) pb with an expected (observed) significance of 2.6 (3.9) and 5.8 (4.6) standard deviations from the background-only hypothesis respectively. The measured cross sections are in agreement with the standard model prediction.
Figures & Tables Summary Additional Figures & Tables References CMS Publications
Figures

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Figure 1-a:
The leading order Feynman diagram for $ { {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}} $, $ { {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {W}}} $ production at the LHC. The charge conjugate of the diagrams shown is implied.

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Figure 1-b:
The leading order Feynman diagram for $ { {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}} $, $ { {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {W}}} $ production at the LHC. The charge conjugate of the diagrams shown is implied.

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Figure 2-a:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 2-b:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 2-c:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 2-d:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 2-e:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 2-f:
Distribution of different kinematic variables in data compared to the simulated expectations. From (a) to (f): jet multplicity and b-jet multiplicity (a,b), ${H_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and Missing transverse momentum(c,d), trailing lepton ${p_{\mathrm {T}}}$ and event counts (e,f).

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Figure 3:
BDT value distribution for background and signal processes. The expected contribution from the different background processes are stacked as well as the expected contribution from the signal. The shaded band represents the uncertainty in the prediction of the background and the signal processes. Events with BDT value higher than 0 are selected.

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Figure 4-a:
Validation plots of the data-driven prediction method for the nonprompt lepton background in $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ in same-sign dilepton channel (a) and in Z+jets (b) and $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ (c) in three-lepton channel. The plots in the top panel show the number of total events by lepton channel and in the bottom panel the plots show the ratio of the predicted to observed yields. A hatched band is drawn to illustrate the coverage of the 30% relative systematic uncertainty

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Figure 4-b:
Validation plots of the data-driven prediction method for the nonprompt lepton background in $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ in same-sign dilepton channel (a) and in Z+jets (b) and $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ (c) in three-lepton channel. The plots in the top panel show the number of total events by lepton channel and in the bottom panel the plots show the ratio of the predicted to observed yields. A hatched band is drawn to illustrate the coverage of the 30% relative systematic uncertainty

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Figure 4-c:
Validation plots of the data-driven prediction method for the nonprompt lepton background in $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ in same-sign dilepton channel (a) and in Z+jets (b) and $ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} $ (c) in three-lepton channel. The plots in the top panel show the number of total events by lepton channel and in the bottom panel the plots show the ratio of the predicted to observed yields. A hatched band is drawn to illustrate the coverage of the 30% relative systematic uncertainty

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Figure 5-a:
WZ control region plots: Distributions of the total yields versus lepton channel, jet multiplicity, transverse mass of the lepton and the missing energy and the reconstructed invariant mass of the Z boson candidates.

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Figure 5-b:
WZ control region plots: Distributions of the total yields versus lepton channel, jet multiplicity, transverse mass of the lepton and the missing energy and the reconstructed invariant mass of the Z boson candidates.

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Figure 5-c:
WZ control region plots: Distributions of the total yields versus lepton channel, jet multiplicity, transverse mass of the lepton and the missing energy and the reconstructed invariant mass of the Z boson candidates.

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Figure 5-d:
WZ control region plots: Distributions of the total yields versus lepton channel, jet multiplicity, transverse mass of the lepton and the missing energy and the reconstructed invariant mass of the Z boson candidates.

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Figure 6-a:
Data-MC comparison for the Z candidates mass (a), jet multiplicity (b) and b-jet multiplicity (c) in a ZZ-dominated background control region

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Figure 6-b:
Data-MC comparison for the Z candidates mass (a), jet multiplicity (b) and b-jet multiplicity (c) in a ZZ-dominated background control region

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Figure 6-c:
Data-MC comparison for the Z candidates mass (a), jet multiplicity (b) and b-jet multiplicity (c) in a ZZ-dominated background control region

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Figure 7:
Predicted and observed yields in each analysis bin in the same-sign dilepton analysis. Bins 1-10 correspond to minus-minus events; bins 11-20 to plus-plus events. Within each charge sign set, first 5 bins correspond to 0 $ < $ BDT $ < $ 0.6, second 5 bins to 0.6 $ < $ BDT. The order of categories within each 5-bin set is : 2 jets; 3 jets 1, b-tag; 3 jets, $\geq $ 2 b-tags; $\geq $ 4 jets 1, b-tag; $\geq $ 4 jets, $\geq $ 2 b-tags. The hatched band shows the total pre-fit uncertainty associated to signal and background predictions where major sources of the uncertainties are uncorrelated and summed in quadrature.

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Figure 8:
Predicted and observed yields in $ {N_\text {jets}} = $ 2 category in the three-lepton analyses. The characters "b", "lb" and "mb" in the x-axis labels represent "b-jet", "loose b-jet" and "medium b-jet" respectively. The hatched band shows the total pre-fit uncertainty associated to signal and background predictions where major sources of the uncertainties are uncorrelated and summed in quadrature.

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Figure 9:
Predicted and observed yields in $ {N_\text {jets}} =$ 3 category in the three-lepton analyses. The characters "b", "lb" and "mb" in the x-axis labels represent "b-jet", "loose b-jet" and "medium b-jet" respectively. The hatched band shows the total pre-fit uncertainty associated to signal and background predictions where major sources of the uncertainties are uncorrelated and summed in quadrature.

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Figure 10:
Predicted and observed yields in $ {N_\text {jets}} \geq $ 4 category in the three-lepton analyses. The characters "b", "lb" and "mb" in the x-axis labels represent "b-jet", "loose b-jet" and "medium b-jet" respectively. The hatched band shows the total pre-fit uncertainty associated to signal and background predictions where major sources of the uncertainties are uncorrelated and summed in quadrature.

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Figure 11:
Predicted and observed yields in each analysis bin in the four-lepton analyses. The characters "j" and "b" in the x-axis labels represent "jet" and "b-jet", respectively. The hatched band shows the total pre-fit uncertainty associated to signal and background predictions where major sources of the uncertainties are uncorrelated and summed in quadrature.

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Figure 12:
The result of the two-dimensional best fit for ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {W}}}$ and ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}}$ cross sections (cross symbol) is shown along with its 68 and 95% confidence level contours. The result of this fit is superimposed with the separate ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {W}}}$ and ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}}$ cross section measurements, and the corresponding 1$\sigma $ bands, obtained from the dilepton, and the trilepton/four-lepton channels, respectively. The figure also shows the predictions from theory and the corresponding uncertainties.
Tables

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Table 1:
Charge mis-ID rates for dielectron events. Events are classified according to the pseudorapidity of the electrons, with the forward-central category containing a forward leading electron and the central-forward category containing a central leading electron. Charge mis-ID rates were calculated using events falling in the Z-mass window.

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Table 2:
Summary of expected and observed significance for ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {W}}}$ in the same-sign 2-lepton channel and for ${ {\mathrm {t}\overline {\mathrm {t}}} {\mathrm {Z}}}$ in the 3-lepton, 4-lepton channels and in the two channels combined.
Summary
A measurement of top quark pair production in association with a W or a Z boson using 13 TeV data is presented. The analysis is performed in the same-sign dilepton final state for ${\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ W }} $ and the three- and four-lepton final states for ${\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ Z }} $, and these three are used to extract the cross sections of ${\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ W }} $ and ${\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ Z }} $ production. The same-sign dilepton channel achieves a significance of 3.9 standard deviations, the three-lepton analysis 3.8 standard deviations, while the four-lepton analysis 2.8 standard devitations. From the combination of three- and four-lepton channels a significance of 4.6 standard deviations for ${\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ Z }} $ is obtained. The measured cross sections are $\sigma({\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ Z }} )=$ 0.70 $^{+0.16}_{-0.15}$ (stat) $^{+0.14}_{-0.12}$ (syst) pb and $\sigma({\mathrm{ t \bar{t} }\mathrm{ W }} )=$ 0.98 $^{+0.23}_{-0.22}$ (stat) $^{+0.22}_{-0.18}$ (syst) pb, in agreement with the standard model predictions.
Additional Figures

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Additional Figure 1:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown are the distributions of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $, the (b-)jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ ($ {N_\text {b-jets}} $) and missing transverse energy for events with same-sign dilepton pair as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed)

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Additional Figure 1-a:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ for events with same-sign dilepton pair as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed)

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Additional Figure 1-b:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the b-jet multiplicity $ {N_\text {b-jets}} $ for events with same-sign dilepton pair as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed)

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Additional Figure 1-c:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $ for events with same-sign dilepton pair as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed)

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Additional Figure 1-d:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the missing transverse energy for events with same-sign dilepton pair as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed)

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Additional Figure 2:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown are the distributions of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $, the (b-)jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ ($ {N_\text {b-jets}} $) and missing transverse energy for events with three-leptons as obtained from a DYMadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 2-a:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ for events with three-leptons as obtained from a DYMadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 2-b:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the b-jet multiplicity $ {N_\text {b-jets}} $ for events with three-leptons as obtained from a DYMadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 2-c:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $ for events with three-leptons as obtained from a DYMadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 2-d:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the missing transverse energy for events with three-leptons as obtained from a DYMadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 3:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown are the distributions of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $, the (b-)jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ ($ {N_\text {b-jets}} $) and missing transverse energy for events with three-leptons as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 3-a:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the jet multiplicity ${N_\text {jets}}$ and missing transverse energy for events with three-leptons as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 3-b:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the b-jet multiplicity $ {N_\text {b-jets}} $ for events with three-leptons as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 3-c:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the distribution of the hadronic activity $ {H_{\mathrm {T}}} $ for events with three-leptons as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).

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Additional Figure 3-d:
Fake background estimation closure with fake rate measured in QCD measurement region. Shown is the missing transverse energy for events with three-leptons as obtained from a ${\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } }$ MadGraph sample. 30% uncertainty covers the discrepancy between observed and predicted yields (light hashed).
Additional Tables

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Additional Table 1:
Systematic uncertainties for different type of backgrounds. Three columns reflect the assigned uncertainty on each type of background and an effect on cross-section measurement of ${{\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } } \mathrm{ W } }$ and ${{\mathrm{ t } {}\mathrm{ \bar{t} } } \mathrm{ Z } }$ processes. Uncertainties on the integrated luminosity, lepton reconstruction and nonprompt background have the greatest effect both on the $\mathrm{ t \bar{t} W }$ and $\mathrm{ t \bar{t} Z }$ cross-section measurement. Uncertainty on WZ and ZZ background gives a significant contribution to the systematic uncertainty of $\mathrm{ t \bar{t} Z }$ cross section measurement.
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LHC, CERN