Measurement of Multi-jet Production Cross Section at a Center-of-Mass Energy of 7 TeV at the Large Hadron Collider with the ATLAS Detector

Author: Lopez Mateos, David

Year: 2011

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisor: Hughes, Emlyn Willard

Committee Members: Hughes, Emlyn Willard; Newman, Harvey B.; Tombrello, Thomas A.; Schwarz, John H.

Option: Physics

DOI: 10.7907/9GWA-6441

Abstract

Inclusive multi-jet production is studied using proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.43 pb-1, and uses a subset of the data collected by the ATLAS detector in 2010. Measurements of multi-jet production cross sections with up to six jets are presented and compared to both leading-order predictions enhanced by a parton shower and next-to-leading-order calculations. Generally, agreement is found between data and leading-order and next-to-leading-order predictions. Regions of phase space or observables in which pure parton-shower simulations differ from the measurements are well described by leading-order calculations that combine matrix-element calculations with several outgoing partons in the final state to parton-shower simulations. Measurements compared to next-to-leading-order calculations are shown to be sensitive to the value of the strong coupling constant.

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