Inclusive Jet and Dijet Production at the Tevatron

Abstract

High energy jet distributions measured since 1992 at the Fermilab Tevatron proton--antiproton collider are presented and compared to theoretical predictions. The statistical uncertainties on these measurements are significantly reduced relative to previous results. The systematic uncertainties are comparable in size to the uncertainty in the theoretical predictions. Although some discrepancies between theory and measurements are noted, the inclusive jet and dijet cross sections can be described by quantum chromodynamics. Prospects for reducing the uncertainty in the theoretical predictions by incorporating Tevatron measurements into the proton parton distributions are discussed. Dijet distributions, in excellent agreement with quantum chromodynamics, set a 2.5 TeV limit on the mass of quark constituents.