PRODUCTION OF JET PAIRS AT LARGE RELATIVE RAPIDITY IN HADRON-HADRON COLLISIONS AS A PROBE OF THE PERTURBATIVE POMERON

The production of jet pairs with small transverse momentum and large r elative rapidity in high energy hadron-hadron collisions is studied. T he rise of the parton-level cross section with increasing rapidity gap is a fundamental prediction of the BFKL ''perturbative pomeron'' equa tion of Quantum Chromodynamics. However, at fixed collider energy it i s difficult to disentangle this effect from variations in the cross se ction due to the parton distributions. It is proposed to study instead the distribution in the azimuthal angle difference of the jets as a f unction of the rapidity gap. The flattening of this distribution with increasing dijet rapidity gap is shown to be a characteristic feature of the BFKL behaviour. Predictions for the Fermilab ppBAR collider are presented, and comparisons with a non-perturbative model calculation are made.