Confronting Mueller-Navelet jets in NLL BFKL with LHC experiments at 7 TeV

TL;DR

This paper provides detailed NLL BFKL predictions for Mueller-Navelet jets at 7 TeV LHC, including cross-sections and correlations, and compares them with fixed-order NLO results to identify BFKL signatures.

Contribution

It offers the first comprehensive NLL BFKL analysis of Mueller-Navelet jets with realistic LHC conditions, including detailed predictions and comparison with NLO calculations.

Findings

NLL BFKL predictions differ from NLO results in specific observables.

Certain azimuthal correlations are sensitive probes of BFKL dynamics.

Predictions are tailored for current LHC experimental setups.

Abstract

More than 25 years ago, Mueller Navelet jets were proposed as a decisive test of BFKL dynamics at hadron colliders. We here study this process at NLL BFKL accuracy, taking into account NLL corrections to the Green's function and to the jet vertices. We present detailed predictions for various observables that can be measured at LHC in ongoing experiments like ATLAS or CMS at sqrt{s}=7 TeV: the cross-section, the azimuthal correlations and the angular distribution of these jets. For this purpose, we apply realistic kinematical cuts and binning, and study the dependence of our results with respect to several parameters. We then compare our results with those that can be obtained in a fixed order NLO treatment, and propose specific observables which could actually be used as a probe of BFKL dynamics.