Cross section predictions of the Z boson in association with jets at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy in proton-proton collisions

Abstract

QCD predictions of the Z (Z -> l(+)l(-)) boson in association with jets (up to 2 jets) in proton-proton collisions are presented in this study. The results are predicted at LO and NLO accuracy using two most recent parton distribution functions, CT14 and MMHT2014. LO and NLO corrections are obtained with LO, NLO, and NNLO PDFs to find out the best PDF, which provides well compatible predictions with the experimental measurements. QCD predictions are performed at 13 and 14 TeV center-of-mass energies. To verify the obtained results, the predictions are compared with the measured results by ATLAS collaboration. NLO QCD predictions obtained by using NLO and NNLO PDFs show good agreement with the experimental data. The comparison of NLO predictions at 13 and 14 TeV center-of-mass energies shows that the Large Hadron Collider will provide approximately 9\% more yield at 14 TeV center-of-mass energy than the yield at 13 TeV center-of-mass energy for the Z boson in association with 1 and 2 jets.