Physics with jets in pp-bar collisions

The possibilities for extracting information on the parton density functions and the strong coupling constant from one- and two-jet events at the Fermilab TEVATRON are discussed. Inclusive two-jet triply differential cross section d3σ/dETdη1dη2 is discussed first. Different η1 and η2 pseudorapidity regions are directly related to the parton momentum fractions at leading order and the shape of the triply differential distribution at fixed transverse energy ET is a particularly powerful tool for constraining the parton distributions at small to moderate x values. Second, the one-jet inclusive transverse energy distribution is considered where there is impressive agreement between theory and experiment over a wide range of transverse energy. By equating the next-to-leading order theoretical prediction for a given set of input parton densities with the published CDF data, the evolution of the strong coupling constant at scale μ can be studied between μ ∼ 50 GeV and μ ∼ 400 GeV. This evolution is in agreement with QCD and corresponds to αs(MZ) = 0.121 for the MRSA parameterization. (author)