Measurement of the ZZ Production Cross Section in pp Collisions at sqrt(s) = 13 TeV with the ATLAS Detector

The ZZ production cross section in proton--proton collisions at 13~TeV center-of-mass energy is measured using $3.2~\text{fb}^{-1}$ of data recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The considered Z boson candidates decay to an electron or muon pair of mass 66–116 GeV. The cross section is measured to be $29.7^{+3.9}_{-3.6}\text{(stat.)}^{+1.0}_{-0.8}\text{(syst.)}^{+1.7}_{-1.3}\text{(lumi.)}$ fb in a fiducial phase space reflecting the detector acceptance. It is also extrapolated to a total phase space for Z bosons in the same mass range and of all decay modes, giving $16.7^{+2.2}_{-2.0}\text{(stat.)}^{+0.9}_{-0.7}\text{(syst.)}^{+1.0}_{-0.7}\text{(lumi.)}$ pb. The results agree with standard model predictions. Motivations for the measurement are presented and near-future prospects discussed.