Measurement of the W-boson angular coefficients and transverse momentum in \(p\!p\) collisions at \(\sqrt{s}=13\) TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

The angular distributions of Drell–Yan lepton pairs provide sensitive probes of the underlying dynamics of quantum chromodynamics (QCD) effects in vector-boson production. This paper presents for the first time the measurement of the full set of angular coefficients together with the differential cross-section as a function of the transverse momentum of the W boson, in the full phase space of the decay leptons. The measurements are performed separately for the \(W^-\) and \(W^+\) channels. The analysis uses proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider in 2017 and 2018, during special low-luminosity runs with a reduced number of interactions per bunch crossings (pile-up). The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 338 pb\(^{-1}\) at a centre-of-mass energy of \(\sqrt{s} = 13\) TeV. The low pile-up environment provides excellent experimental conditions for high-precision measurements of W-boson production. All results agree with theoretical predictions incorporating finite-order QCD corrections up to order \(\alpha _S^2\).