A novel technique for studying the Z boson transverse momentum distribution at hadron colliders

We present a novel method for studying the shape of the Z boson transverse momentum distribution, Q T , at hadron colliders in p p ¯ / pp → Z / γ * → l + l - . The Q T is decomposed into two orthogonal components; one transverse and the other parallel to the di-lepton thrust axis. We show that the transverse component is almost insensitive to the momentum resolution of the individual leptons and is thus more precisely determined on an event-by-event basis than the Q T . Furthermore, we demonstrate that a measurement of the distribution of this transverse component is substantially less sensitive to the dominant experimental systematics (resolution unfolding and Q T dependence of event selection efficiencies) reported in the previous measurements of the Q T distribution.