A search for associated production of a $Z$ boson with an open charm meson is presented using a data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $1.0 \mathrm{fb}^{-`}$ of proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, collected by the LHCb experiment. Seven candidate events for associated production of a $Z$ boson with a $D^0$ meson and four candidate events for a $Z$ boson with a $D^+$ meson are observed with a combined significance of 5.1standard deviations. The production cross-sections in the forward region are measured to be $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^- ,D^0} = 2.50\pm1.12\pm0.22pb$$ $$\sigma_{Z\rightarrow\mu^+\mu^- ,D^+} = 0.44\pm0.23\pm0.03pb,$$ where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic.
Invariant mass distribution for $ Z $ (left) and $ D $ (right) candidates for $ Z + D ^0 $ (top) and $ Z + D ^+ $ (bottom) events. The superimposed curves represent the projection of the fit described in Sect. 4. |
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D-ZD0_base.pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [103 KiB] Thumbnail [83 KiB] *.C file |
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D-ZDp_base.pdf [14 KiB] HiDef png [104 KiB] Thumbnail [84 KiB] *.C file |
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Invariant mass of the $ Z $ and $ D ^0$ (left) and $ Z $ and $ D ^+$ (right) candidates (shown as black dots) compared to the fit (see text) that was used to extract the combinatorial background. The fit shown includes the signal and the background components. The colour scale shows the PDF value at any given point. |
ZD0_base.pdf [126 KiB] HiDef png [1 MiB] Thumbnail [742 KiB] *.C file |
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ZDp_base.pdf [128 KiB] HiDef png [1 MiB] Thumbnail [743 KiB] *.C file |
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Animated gif made out of all figures. |
PAPER-2013-062.gif Thumbnail |
Relative systematic uncertainties for the production cross-section of a $ Z $ boson with an open charm meson $\left[\%\right]$. |
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Comparison of the measured cross-sections $\left[\rm pb \right]$ and the theoretical predictions for the associated production of a $ Z $ boson with an open charm meson. For the measured cross-section the first uncertainty is statistical and the second systematic. For {\sc{MCFM}} the first uncertainty is related to the uncertainties of the parton distribution functions, the second is the scale uncertainty and the third due to uncertainties associated with $ c $ -quark hadronisation as discussed in the text. |
Table_2.pdf [59 KiB] HiDef png [40 KiB] Thumbnail [17 KiB] tex code |
Supplementary material full pdf |
supp.pdf [78 KiB] |
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xsec-br.pdf [15 KiB] HiDef png [202 KiB] Thumbnail [243 KiB] *C file |
Created on 18 May 2024.