Measurement of the production cross section for a W boson and two b jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The production cross section for a W boson and two b jets is measured using proton–proton collisions at View the MathML sources=7 TeV in a data sample collected with the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb−1. The View the MathML sourceW+bb¯ events are selected in the W→μνW→μν decay mode by requiring a muon with transverse momentum pT>25 GeVpT>25 GeV and pseudorapidity |η|<2.1|η|<2.1, and exactly two b-tagged jets with pT>25 GeVpT>25 GeV and |η|<2.4|η|<2.4. The measured View the MathML sourceW+bb¯ production cross section in the fiducial region, calculated at the level of final-state particles, is View the MathML sourceσ(pp→W+bb¯)×B(W→μν)=0.53±0.05(stat.)±0.09(syst.)±0.06(theo.)±0.01(lum.) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction. In addition, kinematic distributions of the View the MathML sourceW+bb¯ system are in agreement with the predictions of a simulation using MadGraph and pythia.