Measurement of the ratio of the differential cross sections for W and Z boson production as a function of transverse momentum in pbarp collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8TeV

Abstract

We report on a preliminary measurement of the ratio of the differential cross sections for W and Z boson production as a function of transverse momentum in proton-antiproton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 1.8 TeV. It has been shown that the ratio between W and Z observables can be reliably calculated using perturbative QCD, even when the individual observables are not. We present the first comparison between the measurement of a W and Z observable ratio and a purely perturbative calculation. The use of the ratio reduces both experimental and theoretical uncertainites and might result in smaller overall uncertainties on the measured W mass and width, compared to currently used methods at hadron colliders.