Measurement and effective field theory interpretation of the photon-fusion production cross section of a pair of W bosons in proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV


Hayrapetyan A., Makarenko V., Tumasyan A., Adam W., Benato L., Bergauer T., ...More

Journal of High Energy Physics, vol.2026, no.6, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)

  • Publication Type: Article / Article
  • Volume: 2026 Issue: 6
  • Publication Date: 2026
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/jhep06(2026)187
  • Journal Name: Journal of High Energy Physics
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus, Aerospace Database, INSPEC, MathSciNet, zbMATH, Directory of Open Access Journals, Academic Search Ultimate (EBSCO), Technology Collection (ProQuest)
  • Keywords: Hadron-Hadron Scattering, Higgs Physics, Particle and Resonance Production
  • Middle East Technical University Affiliated: No

Abstract

This analysis presents an observation of the photon-fusion production of W boson pairs using the CMS detector at the LHC. The total cross section of the W+W− production in photon fusion is measured using proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1 collected with the CMS detector in 2016–2018 at a center-of-mass energy of s=13 TeV. Events are selected in the final state with one isolated electron and one isolated muon, and no additional tracks associated with the electron-muon production vertex. The total and fiducial production cross sections are 643−78+82 fb and 3.96−0.51+0.53 fb, respectively, in agreement with the standard model predictions of 631 ± 126 fb and 3.87 ± 0.77 fb. This agreement enables stringent constraints on anomalous quartic gauge couplings within a dimension-8 effective field theory framework.