Mueller-Navelet small-cone jets at LHC in next-to-leading BFKL

Abstract

We consider within QCD collinear factorization the process $p+p\to \mathrm{jet}+\mathrm{jet}+X$, where two forward high-$p_T$ jets are produced with a large separation in rapidity $\Delta y$ (Mueller-Navelet jets). In this case the (calculable) hard part of the reaction receives large higher-order corrections $\sim {\alpha }_s^n(\Delta y{)}^n$, which can be accounted for in the BFKL approach with next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy, including contributions $\sim {\alpha }_s^n(\Delta y{)}^{n-1}$. We calculate several observables related with this process, using the next-to-leading order jet vertices, recently calculated in the approximation of small aperture of the jet cone in the pseudorapidity-azimuthal angle plane.

Comments: 25 pages, 8 figures, 11 tables; some text added in Sections 1 (Introduction) and 4 (Discussion), including a few new references; version to appear on Nuclear Physics B