Multijet production at low $x_{\rm Bj}$ in deep inelastic scattering at HERA

Abstract

Inclusive dijet and trijet production in deep inelastic $ep$ scattering has been measured for $10<Q^2<100$ GeV$^2$ and low Bjorken $x$, $10^{-4}<x_{\rm Bj}<10^{-2}$. The data were taken at the HERA $ep$ collider with centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} = 318 \gev$ using the ZEUS detector and correspond to an integrated luminosity of $82 {\rm pb}^{-1}$. Jets were identified in the hadronic centre-of-mass (HCM) frame using the $k_{T}$ cluster algorithm in the longitudinally invariant inclusive mode. Measurements of dijet and trijet differential cross sections are presented as functions of $Q^2$, $x_{\rm Bj}$, jet transverse energy, and jet pseudorapidity. As a further examination of low-$x_{\rm Bj}$ dynamics, multi-differential cross sections as functions of the jet correlations in transverse momenta, azimuthal angles, and pseudorapidity are also presented. Calculations at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{s}^3)$ generally describe the trijet data well and improve the description of the dijet data compared to the calculation at $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_{s}^2)$.