This paper summarises results on W and Z plus jet production in pp collisions at $sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider, from both the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Based on the 2010 and 2011 datasets, measurements have been made of numerou
s cross sections providing excellent tests of the latest predictions from QCD calculations and event generators.
The leptonic decays of the heavy gauge bosons W and/or Z provide a clear experimental signature at hadron colliders. The production of accompanying jets is an excellent signal to probe QCD, while also being the main background to many searches for ne
w physics. Describing the complex final state of W or Z + jets is a theoretical challenge with most existing calculations combining matrix elements for high energy jet production with a parton shower for lower energy jet production. We focus on two models: SHERPA, which uses Leading Order matrix elements for boson and jet production; and POWHEG with HERWIG++, which uses a Next-To-Leading Order Matrix element for Z production. In order to isolate the impact of the matrix elements for jet production, it is first essential to constrain the differences in the rest of the calculation in each case: specifically, the Multiple Parton Interaction models, and the tuning of the parton shower interfaced to the matrix elements. We test all three aspects of these models against data from the Tevatron, and perform a study of some basic kinematic variables at the LHC energy.
This paper describes a new measurement of the flux ratio of positive and negative muons from cosmic-ray interactions in the atmosphere, using data collected by the CMS detector at ground level and in the underground experimental cavern. The excellent
performance of the CMS detector allowed detection of muons in the momentum range from 3 GeV to 1 TeV. For muon momenta below 100 GeV the flux ratio is measured to be a constant $1.2766 pm 0.0032(stat) pm 0.0032(syst)$, the most precise measurement to date. At higher momenta an increase in the charge asymmetry is observed, in agreement with models of muon production in cosmic-ray showers and compatible with previous measurements by deep-underground experiments.
