Measurement of differential cross sections for the production of a Z boson in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV

measurement is presented of the production of Z bosons that decay into two electrons or muons in association with jets, in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data were recorded by the CMS Collaboration at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb −1 . The differential cross sections are measured as a function of the transverse momentum (p T ) of the Z boson and the transverse momentum and rapidities of the five jets with largest pT . The jet multiplicity distribution is measured for up to eight jets. The hadronic activity in the events is estimated using the scalar sum of the p T of all the jets. All measurements are unfolded to the stable-particle level and compared with predictions from various Monte Carlo event generators, as well as with expectations at leading and next-to-leading orders in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.