This work develops novel data analysis techniques enabling aspects of the Standard Model of particle physics to be tested with unprecedented precision using data from the DZero experiment at the high energy “Tevatron” proton-antiproton collider at Fermilab, Chicago. Vesterinen's measurements of the transverse momentum of Z bosons using the novel variable φ* have exposed deficiencies in the current state-of-the-art theoretical predictions for vector boson production at hadron colliders. These techniques are now being used in the experiments at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and have stimulated considerable interest in the theoretical particle physics community. Furthermore, Vesterinen's measurements of the cross sections for the production of pairs of vector bosons (WZ and ZZ) are to date the most precise ever made.

Two analyses are performed with the large samples of dielectron and dimuon events collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ collider. The dilepton transverse momentum ($p_T$) distribution in $Z/\gamma^* → \ell^+\ell^-$ production is a powerful probe of Quantum chromodynamics. Until now, this distribution has been measured with limited precision. An alternative variable, $\phi^*_\eta$, is proposed due to its relatively low susceptibility to detector effects. The $\phi^*_\eta$, distribution of events with $Z/\gamma^* → \ell^+\ell^-$ invariant masses between 70 and 110 GeV, is measured in three bins of dilepton rapidity. This measurement, with 7.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data, is significantly more precise than previous measurements of the $p_T$ distribution. A state-of-the-art QCD Monte Carlo program is in modest agreement with the data. Using 8.6 fb$^{-1}$ of data, the $ZZ/\gamma^* → \nu\bar{\nu}\ell^+\ell^-$ and $WZ/\gamma^* → \ell\nu\ell^+\ell^-$ processes are studied, yielding production cross sections of, $\sigma(p\bar{p} \rightarrow ZZ/\gamma^*)$ = 1.64 $\pm$ 0.46 p b and $\sigma(p\bar{p} \rightarrow WZ/\gamma^*)$ = 4.46 $\pm$ 0.64 pb, for $Z/\gamma^* → \ell^+\ell^-$ invariant masses between 60 and 130 GeV. These are in agreement with Standard Model predictions.

We present a measurement of the Z boson differential cross section in rapidity and transverse momentum using a data sample of pp collision events at a centre-of-mass energy √s=8 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb-1. The Z boson is identified via its decay to a pair of muons. The measurement provides a precision test of quantum chromodynamics over a large region of phase space. In addition, due to the small experimental uncertainties in the measurement the data has the potential to constrain the gluon parton distribution function in the kinematic regime important for Higgs boson production via gluon fusion. The results agree with the next-to-next-to-leading-order predictions computed with the fewz program. The results are also compared to the commonly used leading-order MadGraph and next-to-leading-order powheg generators.