PDF constraints and extraction of the strong coupling constant from the inclusive jet cross section at 7 TeV

The recent CMS measurement of the inclusive jet cross section at 7~TeV extends the accessible phase space in jet transverse momentum up to 2 TeV and ranges up to 2.5 in absolute jet rapidity. At the same time the experimental uncertainties are smaller than in previous publications such that these data constrain the parton distribution functions of the proton, notably for the gluon at high fractions of the proton momentum, and provide valuable input to determine the strong coupling at high momentum scales. The impact on the extraction of the parton distribution functions is investigated. Using predictions from theory at next-to-leading order, complemented with electroweak corrections, the strong coupling constant is determined from the inclusive jet cross section to be $\alpha_S(M_Z) = 0.1185 \pm 0.0019\,\mathrm{(exp.)} \pm 0.0028\,\mathrm{(\mathrm{PDF})} \pm 0.0004\,\mathrm{(\mathrm{NP})} ^{+0.0055}_{-0.0022}\,\mathrm{(\mathrm{scale})}$, which is in agreement with the world average.