Electroweak gauge boson production at hadron colliders through<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi mathvariant="script">O</mml:mi><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:msubsup><mml:mi>α</mml:mi><mml:mi>s</mml:mi><mml:mn>2</mml:mn></mml:msubsup><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo></mml:math>
Abstract
We describe a calculation of the $\mathcal{O}({\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{s}^{2})$ QCD corrections to the fully differential cross section for $W$ and $Z$ boson production in hadronic collisions. The result is fully realistic in that it includes spin correlations, finite width effects, $\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{-}Z$ interference and allows for the application of arbitrary cuts on the leptonic decay products of the $W$ and $Z$. We have implemented this calculation into a numerical program. We demonstrate the use of this code by presenting phenomenological results for several future LHC analyses and recent Tevatron measurements, including the $W$ cross section in the forward rapidity region and the central over forward cross section ratio.
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