Measurement of the Strong Coupling Constant from Inclusive Jet Production at the Tevatron $\bar pp$ Collider

TL;DR

This paper measures the strong coupling constant, α_s, using inclusive jet production data from the Tevatron collider, testing QCD predictions over a wide energy range and finding good agreement below 250 GeV.

Contribution

It provides a precise measurement of α_s(M_Z) from jet data at high energies, including detailed analysis of uncertainties and validation of QCD evolution.

Findings

α_s(M_Z) = 0.1178 ± 0.0001 (stat) +0.0081/-0.0095 (exp. syst)

Good agreement with QCD below 250 GeV

Uncertainties mainly from renormalization scale and parton distribution functions

Abstract

We report a measurement of the strong coupling constant, $\alpha_s(M_Z)$, extracted from inclusive jet production in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=$1800 GeV. The QCD prediction for the evolution of $\alpha_s$ with jet transverse energy $E_T$ is tested over the range 40<$E_T$<450 GeV using $E_T$ for the renormalization scale. The data show good agreement with QCD in the region below 250 GeV. In the text we discuss the data-theory comparison in the region from 250 to 450 GeV. The value of $\alpha_s$ at the mass of the $Z^0$ boson averaged over the range 40<$E_T$<250 GeV is found to be $\alpha_s(M_{Z})= 0.1178 \pm 0.0001{(\rm stat)}^{+0.0081}_{-0.0095}{\rm (exp. syst)}$. The associated theoretical uncertainties are mainly due to the choice of renormalization scale ($^{+6%}_{-4%}$) and input parton distribution functions (5%).