Studies of Zγ electroweak production in association with a high-mass di-jet system in pp collisions at √s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract: this poster presents fiducial cross section measurements of electroweak production of two jets in association with a Z boson and a high-energy photon. The measurements use 20.3 fb−1 of proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of s√ = 8 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector in 2012. This analysis aims to give evidence for the existence of vector boson scattering (VBS) process WW -> Zγ. The electroweak component of Zγjj is extracted by a fit to the distribution sensitive to the VBS signature in a fiducial region chosen to enhance the electroweak contribution over the dominant background in which the jets are produced via the strong interaction. Two sigma significance is observed for electroweak Zγjj production process. Quartic couplings of vector bosons are studied in regions of phase space with an enhanced contribution from pure electroweak production, sensitive to vector-boson scattering processes WW -> Zγ. No deviations from Standard Model predictions are observed and constraints are placed on anomalous couplings parameterized by higher-dimensional operators using effective field theory.