Measurements of differential cross sections are presented for the production of a Z boson and at least one hadronic jet in proton-proton collisions at √s = 7 TeV, recorded by the CMS detector, using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.9 inverse femtobarns. The jet multiplicity distribution is measured for up to six jets. The differential cross sections are measured as a function of jet transverse momentum and pseudorapidity for the four highest transverse momentum jets. The distribution of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta is also measured as a function of the jet multiplicity. The measurements are compared with theoretical predictions at leading and next-to-leading order in perturbative QCD.

Measurements of the associated production of a Z boson with at least one jet originating from a b quark in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV are presented. Differential cross sections are measured with data collected by the CMS experiment corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.8 inverse femtobarns. Z bosons are reconstructed through their decays to electrons and muons. Cross sections are measured as a function of observables characterizing the kinematics of the b jet and the Z boson. Ratios of differential cross sections for the associated production with at least one b jet to the associated production with any jet are also presented. The production of a Z boson with two b jets is investigated, and differential cross sections are measured for the dijet system. Results are compared to theoretical predictions, testing two different flavour schemes for the choice of initial-state partons.

The production of a Z boson, decaying into two leptons and produced in association with one or more b jets, is studied using proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data were recorded in 2011 with the CMS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 5 fb-1. The Z(ll) + b-jets cross sections (where ll = [mu][mu] or ee) are measured separately for a Z boson produced with exactly one b jet and with at least two b jets. In addition, a cross section ratio is extracted for a Z boson produced with at least one b jet, relative to a Z boson produced with at least one jet. The measured cross sections are compared to various theoretical predictions, and the data favour the predictions in the five-flavour scheme, where b quarks are assumed massless. The kinematic properties of the reconstructed particles are compared with the predictions from the MadGraph event generator using the pythia parton shower simulation.

We report measurements of differential production cross-sections of a Z boson in association with b-jets in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV. The data analysed correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.6 fb-1 recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Particle-level cross-sections are determined for events with a Z boson decaying into an electron or muon pair, and containing b-jets. For events with at least one b-jet, the cross-section is presented as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum and rapidity, together with the inclusive b-jet cross-section as a function of b-jet transverse momentum, rapidity and angular separations between the b-jet and the Z boson. For events with at least two b-jets, the cross-section is determined as a function of the invariant mass and angular separation of the two highest transverse momentum b-jets, and as a function of the Z boson transverse momentum and rapidity. Lastly, results are compared to leading-order and next-to-leading-order perturbative QCD calculations.

A measurement of the b jet production cross section is presented for events containing a Z boson produced in p{bar p} collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV, using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2 fb−1 collected by the CDF II detector at the Tevatron. Z bosons are selected in the electron and muon decay modes. Jets are considered with transverse energy E{sub T} > 20 GeV and pseudorapidity.

Our measurements are reported of differential cross sections for the production of a W boson, which decays into a muon and a neutrino, in association with jets, as a function of several variables, including the transverse momenta (pT) and pseudorapidities of the four leading jets, the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta (HT), and the difference in azimuthal angle between the directions of each jet and the muon. Furthermore, the data sample of pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV was collected with the CMS detector at the LHC and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb-1. The measured cross sections are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo generators, MADGRAPH + PYTHIAand SHERPA, and to next-to-leading-order calculations from BLACKHAT + SHERPA. The differential cross sections are found to be in agreement with the predictions, apart from the pT distributions of the leading jets at high pT values, the distributions of the HT at high-HT and low jet multiplicity, and the distribution of the difference in azimuthal angle between the leading jet and the muon at low values.

This Ph. D. thesis presents the measurement of inclusive jet cross sections in Z/[gamma]* 2!ee− events using 1.7 fb−1 of data collected by the upgraded CDF detector during the Run II of the Tevatron. The Midpoint cone algorithm is used to search for jets in the events after identifying the presence of a Z/[gamma]* boson through the reconstruction of its decay products. The measurements are compared to next-to-LO (NLO) pQCD predictions for events with one and two jets in the final state. The perturbative predictions are corrected for the contributions of non-perturbative processes, like the underlying event and the fragmentation of the partons into jets of hadrons. These processes are not described by perturbation theory and must be estimated from phenomenological models. In this thesis, a number of measurements are performed to test different models of underlying event and hadronization implemented in LO plus parton shower Monte Carlo generator programs. Chapter 2 is devoted to the description of the theory of strong interactions and jet phenomenology at hadron colliders. Chapter 3 contains the description of the Tevatron collider and the CDF detector. The analysis is described in detail in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 shows the measurement of those observables sensitive to non-perturbative effects compared to the predictions from several Monte Carlo programs. Chapter 6 discusses the final results and the comparison with theoretical expectations. Finally, Chapter 7 is devoted to the conclusions.