Measurement of jet production cross sections in deep-inelastic ep scattering at HERA

Abstract

A precision measurement of jet cross sections in neutral current deep-inelastic scattering for photon virtualities 5.5<Q2<80GeV2 and inelasticities 0.2<y<0.6 is presented, using data taken with the H1 detector at HERA, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 290pb−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 Q2. Jet cross sections normalised to the inclusive neutral current DIS cross section in the respective Q2-interval are also determined. Previous results of inclusive jet cross sections in the range 150<Q2<15,000GeV2 are extended to low transverse jet momenta 5<PjetT<7GeV. 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 Q2, the strong coupling constant αs(MZ) is determined in next-to-leading order.