Measurement of the Associated Production of a Z Boson with a J/psi Meson with the CMS Experiment at a Center-of-Mass Energy of 8 TeV

Abstract

The associated production of a Z boson and a J/psi meson provides information about the production mechanisms of quarkonium. A measurement of the associated production of a Z boson, which decays to leptons, and a J/psi meson, which decays to muons, relative to the inclusive production of a Z boson, which decays to leptons, is presented. The measurement was made using the full 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV by the Compact Muon Solenoid detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The associated production is presented for both prompt and nonprompt J/psi, as a function of the transverse momentum of the J/psi meson. The associated production cross sections of a Z that decays to two muons or to two electrons, and a prompt or nonprompt J/psi that decays to two muons, relative to the inclusive production cross section of a Z that decays to two muons or to two electrons, are measured.