BFKL Physics in Dijet Production at the LHC

Abstract

The production in hadron-hadron collisions of jet pairs with large rapidity separation and comparable modest transverse momentum is, in principle, described by the perturbative QCD BFKL equation. The measurement of such jet pairs appears well suited to the LHC detectors, with their ability to detect forward jets. We present predictions for dijet cross sections and correlations obtained using a BFKL Monte Carlo which allows kinematic and other subleading effects to be incorporated. The enhanced phase space for gluon emission at the LHC makes the BFKL behavior somewhat easier to observe than at the Tevatron, although kinematic effects are still important. The production of forward jets in association with heavy Higgs bosons via the gauge boson fusion mechanism is also studied and compared with QCD dijet production.