Measurement of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV and first determination of the strong coupling constant in the TeV range

TL;DR

This paper measures the ratio of 3-jet to 2-jet cross sections in proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV, and uses it to determine the strong coupling constant at high energy scales, providing a novel test of QCD.

Contribution

It presents the first determination of alphaS[MZ] at momentum scales beyond 0.6 TeV using jet cross section ratios.

Findings

Measured alphaS[MZ] = 0.1148 with uncertainties.

Confirmed the predicted evolution of the strong coupling constant.

No deviation from perturbative QCD predictions observed.

Abstract

A measurement is presented of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section as a function of the average transverse momentum, <pT[1,2]>, of the two leading jets in the event. The data sample was collected during 2011 at a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 inverse femtobarns. The strong coupling constant at the scale of the Z boson mass is determined to be alphaS[MZ] = 0.1148 +/- 0.0014 (exp.) +/- 0.0018 (PDF) +/- 0.0050 (theory), by comparing the ratio in the range 0.42 < <pT[1,2]> < 1.39 TeV to the predictions of perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order. This is the first determination of alphaS[MZ] from measurements at momentum scales beyond 0.6 TeV. The predicted ratio depends only indirectly on the evolution of the parton distribution functions of the proton such that this measurement also serves as a test of the evolution of the strong coupling constant. No deviation from the expected behaviour is observed.