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

The production cross section for a W boson and two b jets is measured using proton–proton collisions at √(s)=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 W+bb^¯ events are selected in the W→μν decay mode by requiring a muon with transverse momentum p_T>25 GeV and pseudorapidity |η|<2.1, and exactly two b-tagged jets with p_T>25 GeV and |η|<2.4. The measured W+bb^¯ production cross section in the fiducial region, calculated at the level of final-state particles, is σ(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 W+bb^¯ system are in agreement with the predictions of a simulation using MADGRAPH and PYTHIA