Measurement of four-jet production in proton-proton collisions at s =7TeV

Measurements of the differential cross sections for the production of exactly four jets in proton-proton collisions are presented as a function of the transverse momentum p(T) and pseudorapidity eta, together with the correlations in azimuthal angle and the p(T) balance among the jets. The data sample was collected in 2010 at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, with an integrated luminosity of 36 pb(-1). The cross section for exactly four jets, with two hard jets of p(T) > 50 GeV each, together with two jets of p(T) > 20 GeV each, within vertical bar eta vertical bar < 4.7 is measured to be sigma = 330 +/- 5(stat.) +/- 45(syst.) nb. It is found that fixed-order matrix element calculations including parton showers describe the measured differential cross sections in some regions of phase space only, and that adding contributions from double parton scattering brings the Monte Carlo predictions closer to the data.