Measurement of differential ZZ plus jets production cross sections in pp collisions at √s=13 TeV

Abstract

Diboson production in association with jets is studied in the fully leptonic final states, pp -> (Z/gamma(*))(Z/gamma(*)) + jets -> 2l2l'+ jets, (l, l ' = e or mu) in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb(-1) collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Differential distributions and normalized differential cross sections are measured as a function of jet multiplicity, transverse momentum p(T), pseudorapidity eta, invariant mass and eta of the highest-p(T) and second-highest-p(T) jets, and as a function of invariant mass of the four-lepton system for events with various jet multiplicities. These differential cross sections are compared with theoretical predictions that mostly agree with the experimental data. However, in a few regions we observe discrepancies between the predicted and measured values. Further improvement of the predictions is required to describe the ZZ+jets production in the whole phase space.