Measurement of associated production of a W boson and a charm quark in proton–proton collisions at [radical]s=13TeV

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 13TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.7fb−1 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)±→D[superscript 0]+𝜋±→K∓+𝜋±+𝜋±. A cross section is measured in the fiducial region defined by the muon transverse momentum 𝑝𝜇T>26GeV, muon pseudorapidity |𝜂[superscript 𝜇]|<2.4, and charm quark transverse momentum 𝑝[superscript c][subscript T]>5GeV. The inclusive cross section for this kinematic range is 𝜎(W+c)=1026±31(stat)[superscript +76][subscript −72](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.