Measurements of differential production cross sections for a Z boson in association with jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

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Cross sections for the production of a Z boson in association with jets in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 8 TeV are measured using a data sample collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC corresponding to 19.6 inverse femtobarns.

• Differential cross sections are presented as functions of up to three observables that describe the jet kinematics and the jet activity.
• Correlations between the azimuthal directions and the rapidities of the jets and the Z boson are studied in detail.
• The predictions of a number of multileg generators with leading or next-to-leading order accuracy are compared with the measurements.