A study of multi-jet production in association with an electroweak vector boson

Abstract

We consider the production of a single $Z$ or $W$ boson in association with jets at the LHC. We compute the corresponding cross sections by matching NLO QCD predictions with the Herwig++ and Pythia8 parton showers, and by merging all of the underlying matrix elements with up to two light partons at the Born level. We compare our results with several 7-TeV measurements by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, and overall we find a good agreement between theory and data.

Comments: 43 pages, 47 figures. In v2 the two plots of fig. 26 have been updated, and the text modified accordingly, following a fix in the relevant Rivet analysis. Minor changes in the acknowledgments and affiliations. Clarifications and one reference added in v3