Measurement of the W + jets and Z + jets Cross Section with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

The study of W or Z boson with accompanying hadronic jets in final states is of high importance at hadron colliders both to understand Standard Model processes and to measure background to Beyond Standard Model physics searches. The presence of one or more jets in the final state increases the complexity for the reconstruction of leptons and of missing transverse energy. The ATLAS prospects for the cross section measurement of W/Z + jets events at 14 TeV center of mass energy and integrated luminosity of 1 fb^{-1} using fully simulated data are discussed. The statistical and systematic limitations are discussed in terms of probing perturbative QCD predictions and Monte Carlo generators.Comment: To be published in the proceedings of DPF-2009, Detroit, MI, July 2009, eConf C09072