This Letter describes measurements of inclusive W (-} ev) + n jet cross sections (n = 1-4), presented as total inclusive cross sections and differentially in the nth jet transverse momentum. The measurements are made using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 4.2 fb(-1) collected by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, and achieve considerably smaller uncertainties on W + jets production cross sections than previous measurements.
The measurements are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD (pQCD) calculations in the n = 1-3 jet multiplicity bins and to leading order pQCD calculations in the 4-jet bin. The measurements are generally in agreement with pQCD calculations, although certain regions of phase space are identified where these predictions could better match the data.