Measurement of the transverse momentum distribution of W bosons in pp collisions at s=7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

This paper describes a measurement of the W boson transverse momentum distribution using ATLAS pp collision data from the 2010 run of the LHC at s=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 31 pb-1. Events form both W→eν and W→μν are used, and the transverse momentum of the W candidates is measured through the energy deposition in the calorimeter from the recoil of the W. The resulting distributions are unfolded to obtain the normalized differential cross sections as a function of the W boson transverse momentum. We present results for pTW<300 GeV in the electron and muon channels as well as for their combination, and compare the combined results to the predictions of perturbative QCD and a selection of event generators.