Abstract: A measurement is presented of the associated production of a single top quark and a Z boson. The study uses data from proton?proton collisions at s=13TeV recorded by the CMS experiment, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb?1. Using final states with three leptons (electrons or muons), the tZq production cross section is measured to be ?(pp?tZq?Wb?+??q)=123?31 +33(stat)?23 +29(syst)fb, where ? stands for electrons, muons, or ? leptons, with observed and expected significances of 3.7 and 3.1 standard deviations, respectively.
