Measurement of the ZZ production cross section and limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge couplings in proton-proton collisions at vs = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A measurement of the ZZ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at vs = 7 TeV using data collected by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is presented. In a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.02 fb-1 [1], 12 events containing two Z boson candidates decaying to electrons and/or muons were observed. The expected background contribution is 0.3+0.9?03(stat)+0.4?03(syst) events. The total cross section for on-shell ZZ production has been determined to be s totZZ = 8.4+2.7-23 (stat)+04.4-07 (syst) ± 0.3 (lumi) pb and is compatible with the Standard Model expectation of 6.5+0.3-02 pb calculated at the next-to-leading order in QCD. Limits on anomalous neutral triple gauge boson couplings are derived.