Measurement of the WZ production cross section in pp collisions at √s = 7 and 8 TeV and search for anomalous triple gauge couplings at √s = 8TeV

The WZ production cross section is measured by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in proton–proton collision data samples corresponding to integrated luminosities of 4.9 fb⁻¹ collected at√s = 7 TeV, and 19.6 fb⁻¹ at√s = 8 TeV. The measurements are performed using the fully-leptonic WZ decay modes with electrons and muons in the final state. The measured cross sections for 71 < m_Z < 111 GeV are σ (pp → WZ; √s = 7TeV) =20.14±1.32 (stat)±0.38 (theo)±1.06 (exp)±0.44 (lumi) pb and σ (pp → WZ;√s = 8TeV) = 24.09 ± 0.87 (stat) ±0.80 (theo) ± 1.40 (exp) ± 0.63 (lumi) pb. Differential cross sections with respect to the Z boson p_T, the leading jet p_T, and the number of jets are obtained using the √s = 8TeV data. The results are consistent with standard model predictions and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings are obtained.