Measurement of the WZ cross section and triple gauge couplings in pp collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

This Letter describes the current most precise measurement of the $WZ$ production cross section as well as limits on anomalous $WWZ$ couplings at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV in proton-antiproton collisions for the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). $WZ$ candidates are reconstructed from decays containing three charged leptons and missing energy from a neutrino, where the charged leptons are either electrons or muons. Using data collected by the CDF II detector (7.1 fb⁻¹ of integrated luminosity), 63 candidate events are observed with the expected background contributing 8 ± 1 events. The measured total cross section σ (p p → WZ) = 3.93-0.53+0.60(stat)-0.46+0.59(syst) pb is in good agreement with the standard model prediction of 3.50± 0.21. The same sample is used to set limits on anomalous $WWZ$ couplings.