New determination of the Pomeron intercept in hard processes - art. no. 034006

method allowing for a direct comparison of data with theoretical prediction s is proposed for forward jet production at DESY HERA. It avoids the recons truction of multiparton contributions by expressing the experimental cuts d irectly as correction factors on the QCD forward jet cross section. An appl ication to the determination of the effective Pomeron intercept in the Bali tskii-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL)-leading-order (LO) parametrization from d sigma/dx data at HERA leads to a good fit with a significantly higher effe ctive intercept, alpha(P) = 1.43 +/- 0.025(stat) +/- 0.025(syst), than for proton (total and diffractive) structure functions. Tt is, however, less th an the value of the Pomeron intercept using dijets with large rapidity inte rvals obtained at the Fermilab Tevatron. We also evaluate the rapidity veto contribution to the higher-order BFKL corrections. The method can he exten ded to other theoretical inputs.