Constraints on Nonrelativistic-QCD Long-Distance Matrix Elements from J/ψ Plus W/Z Production at the LHC.

We study the associated production of prompt J/ψ mesons and W or Z bosons within the factorization approach of nonrelativistic QCD (NRQCD) at next-to-leading order in α_{s}, via intermediate color singlet ^{3}S_{1}^{[1]} and ^{3}P_{J}^{[1]} and color octet ^{1}S_{0}^{[8]}, ^{3}S_{1}^{[8]}, and ^{3}P_{J}^{[8]} states. Requiring for our predictions to be compatible with recent ATLAS measurements yields stringent new constraints on charmonium long-distance matrix elements (LDMEs) being nonperturbative, process-independent input parameters. Considering four popular LDME sets fitted to data of single J/ψ inclusive production, we find that one is marginally compatible with the data, with central predictions typically falling short by a factor of 3, one is unfavored, the factor of shortfall being about 1 order of magnitude, and two violate cross section positivity for direct J/ψ+W/Z production. The large rate of prompt J/ψ plus W production observed by ATLAS provides strong evidence for the color octet mechanism inherent to NRQCD factorization, the leading color singlet contribution entering only at O(G_{F}α_{s}^{4}), beyond the order considered here.