Next-to-leading order W + 5 -jet production at the LHC

We present next-to-leading order QCD predictions for the total cross section and for a comprehensive set of transverse-momentum distributions in W + 5-jet production at the Large Hadron Collider. We neglect the small contributions from subleading-color virtual terms, top quarks, and some terms containing four quark pairs. We also present ratios of total cross sections, and use them to obtain an extrapolation formula to an even larger number of jets. We include the decay of the W boson into leptons. This is the first such computation with six final-state vector bosons or jets. We use BLACKHAT together with sherpa to carry out the computation.