Jet Production and Fragmentation Properties in Deep Inelastic Muon Scattering

Results are presented from a study of deep inelastic 280 GeV muon-nucleon interactions on the transverse momenta and jet properties of the final state hadrons. The results are analysed in a way which attempts to separate the contributions of hard and soft QCD effects from those that arise from the fragmentation process. The fragmentation models with which the data are compared are the Lund string model, the independent jet model, the QCD parton shower model including soft gluon interference effects, and the firestring model. The discrimination between these models is discussed. Various methods of analysis of the data in terms of hard QCD processes are presented. From a study of the properties of the jet profiles a value of α s , to leading order, is determined using the Lund string model, namely α s =0.29±0.01 (stat.) ±0.02 (syst.), forQ2∼20 GeV2.