Measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of W bosons in pp collisions at root s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

This paper describes a measurement of the W boson transverse momentum distribution using ATLAS pp collision data from the 2010 run of the LHC at root s = 7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 31 pb(-1). Events form both W - GT e nu and W - GT mu nu are used, and the transverse momentum of the W candidates is measured through the energy deposition in the calorimeter from the recoil of the W. The resulting distributions are unfolded to obtain the normalized differential cross sections as a function of the W boson transverse momentum. We present results for p(T)(W) LT 300 GeV in the electron and muon channels as well as for their combination, and compare the combined results to the predictions of perturbative QCD and a selection of event generators.