Direct determination of the gluon density in the proton from jet cross sections in deep-inelastic scattering

Abstract

A QCD analysis of jet production in deep-inelastic scattering is presented. The studies are based on recent measurements of jet cross sections in the H1 experiment at HERA which are directly sensitive to the gluon density in the proton. The inclusion of H1 data on the inclusive deep-inelastic scattering cross section enables us to perform a consistent, simultaneous determination of the quark and gluon densities in the proton. The gluon density has been determined at fairly large values of 10 −2 < x < 10 −1 at a scale of the order of the transverse jet energies μ f 2 = 200 GeV 2. The result is consistent with indirect determinations from HERA structure function data and extends their range of sensitivity to larger x-values.