Measurement of the Z to tau tau Cross Section with the ATLAS Detector

Abstract

The Z to tau tau cross section is measured with the ATLAS experiment at the LHC in four different final states determined by the decay modes of the tau leptons: muon-hadron, electron-hadron, electron-muon, and muon-muon. The analysis is based on a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 36 pb^-1, at a proton-proton center-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV. Cross sections are measured separately for each final state in fiducial regions of high detector acceptance, as well as in the full phase space, over the mass region 66 - 116 GeV. The individual cross sections are combined and the product of the total Z production cross section and Z to tau tau branching fraction is measured to be 0.97 _s16/- 0.07(stat) _s16/- 0.06(syst) _s16/- 0.03(lumi), in agreement with NNLO calculations.