Measurements of inclusive and differential Drell-Yan cross sections with the ATLAS detector at 8 and 13 TeV

Precision measurements of the Drell­Yan production of W and Z/gamma* bosons at the LHC provide a benchmark of our understanding of perturbative QCD and probe the proton structure in a unique way. The ATLAS collaboration has performed high precision differential measurements at center­of­mass energies of 7 TeV and 8 TeV, integrated and as a function of the rapidity and the Z/gamma* mass. In the 8 TeV data, the di­lepton mass range has been probed up to the TeV scale. The measurements are compared to state­of­the­art calculations at NNLO in QCD, combined with various contemporary parton distribution functions and including higher­order electroweak and photon­induced effects. Strong constraints on the parton distribution functions are found. The ATLAS collaboration has furthermore performed first precise integrated measurements at a center­of­mass energy of 13 TeV. Ratios of W and Z cross sections and of the W boson charges with significantly reduced experimental uncertainties are presented. In addition, ratios of the cross sections for the production of single Z bosons and top­quark pairs have been derived at various center­of­mass energies. The measurements are compared to state­of­the­art calculations at NNLO in QCD, combined with various contemporary parton distribution functions.