Three-jet production and gluon saturation effects in $p\mathrm{\text{\ensuremath{-}}}p$ and $p$-Pb collisions within high-energy factorization

Three-jet production and gluon saturation effects in $p − p$ and $p$ -Pb collisions within high-energy factorization

A. van Hameren, P. Kotko, and K. Kutak

Phys. Rev. D 88, 094001 – Published 4 November 2013; Erratum Phys. Rev. D 90, 039901 (2014)

Abstract

We analyze three-jet production in the central-forward and forward rapidity regions in proton-proton and proton-lead collisions at LHC energies. Our calculation relies on high-energy factorization with a single off-shell gluon obeying small $x$ evolution equation which includes saturation. The calculations are made using two independent Monte Carlo codes implementing tree-level gauge invariant off-shell matrix elements. We calculate differential cross sections for azimuthal decorrelations and unbalanced jet transverse momenta and discuss them in the context of differences in the evolution of the unintegrated gluon densities.