W physics at the LHC with FEWZ 2.1

Abstract

We present an updated version of the FEWZ (Fully Exclusive W and Z production) code for the calculation of W and gamma*/Z production at next-to-next-to-leading order in the strong coupling. Several new features and observables are introduced, and an order-of-magnitude speed improvement over the performance of FEWZ 2.0 is demonstrated. New phenomenological results for W production and comparisons with LHC data are presented, and used to illustrate the range of physics studies possible with the features of FEWZ 2.1. We demonstrate with an example the importance of directly comparing fiducial-region measurements with theoretical predictions, rather than first extrapolating them to the full phase space.