Measurement of Jet Production Cross Sections in Deep-inelastic ep Scattering at HERA

TL;DR

This paper presents precise measurements of jet production cross sections in deep-inelastic ep scattering at HERA, extending previous results to lower jet transverse momenta and comparing data with advanced QCD predictions to determine the strong coupling constant.

Contribution

It provides the first simultaneous measurement of inclusive, dijet, and trijet cross sections across a broad kinematic range, including low transverse jet momenta, and compares these with state-of-the-art QCD calculations.

Findings

Measured jet cross sections over a wide Q^2 range.

Extended previous measurements to lower jet transverse momenta.

Determined the strong coupling constant α_s(M_Z) with improved precision.

Abstract

A precision measurement of jet cross sections in neutral current deep-inelastic scattering for photon virtualities $5.5<Q^2<80\,{\rm GeV}^2$ and inelasticities $0.2<y<0.6$ is presented, using data taken with the H1 detector at HERA, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $290\,{\rm pb}^{-1}$. Double-differential inclusive jet, dijet and trijet cross sections are measured simultaneously and are presented as a function of jet transverse momentum observables and as a function of $Q^2$. Jet cross sections normalised to the inclusive neutral current DIS cross section in the respective $Q^2$-interval are also determined. Previous results of inclusive jet cross sections in the range $150<Q^2<15\,000\,{\rm GeV}^2$ are extended to low transverse jet momenta $5<P_{T}^{\rm jet}<7\,{\rm GeV}$. The data are compared to predictions from perturbative QCD in next-to-leading order in the strong coupling, in approximate next-to-next-to-leading order and in full next-to-next-to-leading order. Using also the recently published H1 jet data at high values of $Q^2$, the strong coupling constant $\alpha_s(M_Z)$ is determined in next-to-leading order.