Measurement of the inclusive $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}$ production cross section in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 5.02 TeV

Abstract: The top quark pair production cross section is measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The data were collected in a special LHC low-energy and low-intensity run in 2017, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 302 pb$^{-1}$. The measurement is performed using events with one electron and one muon of opposite charge, and at least two jets. The measured cross section is 60.7 $\pm$ 5.0 (stat) $\pm$ 2.8 (syst) $\pm$ 1.1 (lumi) pb. To reduce the statistical uncertainty, a combination with the result in the single lepton + jets channel, based on data collected in 2015 at the same center-of-mass energy and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 pb$^{-1}$, is then performed. The resulting measured value is 63.0 $\pm$ 4.1 (stat) $\pm$ 3.0 (syst+lumi) pb, in agreement with the standard model prediction of 66.8 $^{+2.9}_{-3.1}$ pb.