Measurement of the pp¯→W+b+X production cross section at s=1.96TeV

We present a measurement of the cross section for W boson production in association with at least one b-quark jet in proton-antiproton collisions. The measurement is made using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 6.1fb−1 recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron pp¯ Collider at s=1.96TeV. We measure an inclusive cross section of σ(W(→μν)+b+X)=1.04±0.05(stat.)±0.12(syst.) pb and σ(W(→eν)+b+X)=1.00±0.04(stat.)±0.12(syst.) pb in the phase space defined by pTν>25GeV, pTb-jet>20 GeV, |ηb-jet|<1.1, and a muon (electron) with pTℓ>20 GeV and |ημ|<1.7 (|ηe|<1.1 or 1.5<|ηe|<2.5). The combined result per lepton family is σ(W(→ℓν)+b+X)=1.05±0.12(stat.+syst.) pb for |ηℓ|<1.7. The results are in agreement with predictions from next-to-leading order QCD calculations using mcfm, σ(W+b)⋅B(W→ℓν)=1.34−0.34+0.41(syst.) pb, and also with predictions from the sherpa and madgraph Monte Carlo event generators.