Previous studies of the physics potential of LEP2 indicated that with the design luminosity of 500 inverse picobarn one may get a direct measurement of the mass of the W-boson with a precision in the range 30 - 50 MeV. This report presents an updated evaluation of the estimated error on the mass of the W-boson based on recent simulation work and improved theoretical input. The most efficient experimental methods which will be used are also described.
The $W$ boson mass is measured using proton-proton collision data at $sqrt{s}=13$ TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.7 fb$^{-1}$ recorded during 2016 by the LHCb experiment. With a simultaneous fit of the muon $q/p_T$ distribution of a sample of $W to mu u$ decays and the $phi^*$ distribution of a sample of $Ztomumu$ decays the $W$ boson mass is determined to be begin{equation*} m_{W} = 80354 pm 23_{rm stat} pm 10_{rm exp} pm 17_{rm theory} pm 9_{rm PDF}~mathrm{MeV}, end{equation*} where uncertainties correspond to contributions from statistical, experimental systematic, theoretical and parton distribution function sources. This is an average of results based on three recent global parton distribution function sets. The measurement agrees well with the prediction of the global electroweak fit and with previous measurements.
The impact of higher-order final-state photonic corrections on the precise determination of the W-boson mass at the Tevatron and LHC colliders is evaluated. The W-mass shift from a fit to the transverse mass distribution is found to be about 10 MeV in the W --> mu nu channel and a few MeV in the W --> e nu channel. The calculation, which is implemented in the Monte Carlo event generator HORACE for data analysis, can contribute to reduce the uncertainty associated to the W mass measurement at present and future hadron collider experiments.
Within the framework of transverse-momentum-dependent factorization, we investigate for the first time the impact of a flavor-dependent intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks on the production of $W^{pm}$ bosons in proton-proton collisions at $sqrt{s}$ = 7 TeV. We estimate the shift in the extracted value of the $W$ boson mass $M_W$ induced by different choices of flavor-dependent parameters for the intrinsic quark transverse momentum by means of a template fit to the transverse-mass and the lepton transverse-momentum distributions of the $W$-decay products. We obtain $-6leq Delta M_{W^+} leq 9$ MeV and $-4leq Delta M_{W^-} leq 3$ MeV with a statistical uncertainty of $pm 2.5$ MeV. Our findings call for more detailed investigations of flavor-dependent nonperturbative effects linked to the proton structure at hadron colliders.
The Standard Model of electroweak interactions has had great success in describing the observed data over the last three decades. The precision of experimental measurements affords tests of the Standard Model at the quantum loop level beyond leading order. Despite this great success it is important to continue confronting experimental measurements with the Standard Model predictions as any deviation would signal new physics. As a fundamental parameter of the Standard Model, the mass of the W-boson, M_W, is of particular importance. Aside from being an important test of the SM itself, a precision measurement of M_W can be used to constrain the mass of the Higgs boson, M_H. In this article we review the principal experimental techniques for determining M_W and discuss their combination into a single precision M_W measurement, which is then used to yield constraints on M_H. We conclude by briefly discussing future prospects for precision measurements of the W-boson mass.
We discuss the prospects for measuring the W mass in Run II of the Tevatron and at the LHC. The basic techniques used to measure M_W are described and the statistical, theoretical and detector-related uncertainties are discussed in detail.