Measurements of Inclusive W and Z Cross Sections in pp Collisions at √ s = 7 TeV The CMS Collaboration

Measurements of inclusive W and Z boson production cross sections in pp collisions at $ \sqrt {s} = 7 $ TeV are presented, based on 2.9 pb−1 of data recorded by the CMS detector at the LHC. The measurements, performed in the electron and muon decay channels, are combined to give $ \sigma \left( {{\text{pp}} \to {\text{W}}X} \right) \times \mathcal{B}\left( {{\text{W}} \to \ell \nu } \right) = 9.95\pm 0.07\left( {{\text{stat}}{.}} \right)\pm 0.28\left( {{\text{syst}}{.}} \right)\pm 1.09 $ (lumi.) nb and $ \sigma \left( {{\text{pp}} \to {\text{Z}}X} \right) \times \mathcal{B}\left( {Z \to {\ell^{+} }{\ell^{-} }} \right) = 0.931\pm 0.026\left( {{\text{stat}}{.}} \right)\pm 0.023\left( {{\text{syst}}{.}} \right)\pm 0.102 $ (lumi.) nb, where ℓ stands for either e or μ. Theoretical predictions, calculated at the next-to-next-to-leading order in QCD using recent parton distribution functions, are in agreement with the measured cross sections. Ratios of cross sections, which incur an experimental systematic uncertainty of less than 4%, are also reported.