Mueller-Navelet jets at the LHC: hunting data with azimuthal distributions

TL;DR

This paper compares BFKL-based theoretical predictions with CMS data on Mueller-Navelet jets at 7 TeV, demonstrating that azimuthal distributions effectively reveal high-energy QCD dynamics at large rapidity intervals.

Contribution

It introduces a combined collinear and high-energy factorization approach to analyze Mueller-Navelet jets, validating NLO BFKL predictions against experimental data.

Findings

Azimuthal distributions reveal high-energy dynamics.

NLO BFKL description is valid at large rapidity intervals.

Method overcomes issues in previous Mueller-Navelet analyses.

Abstract

By making use of the hybrid collinear and high-energy factorization, where the BFKL resummation of leading and next-to-leading energy logarithms is combined with the standard description in terms of collinear parton densities, we compare predictions for Mueller-Navelet jet rapidity and angular differential rates with data collected by CMS at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. We provide an evidence that the study of azimuthal distributions, calculated as a Fourier sum of correlation moments and embodying the high-energy signal coming from all conformal-spin modes, permits us to overcome the well-known issues emerging in the description of Mueller-Navelet final states at natural values of the renormalization scale. We come out with a clear indication that the next-to-leading BFKL description of these observables at natural scales is valid when the rapidity interval between the two jets is large, and it allows us to catch the core high-energy dynamics emerging from data.