Toward Mueller-Tang Jets at Next-to-Leading Order

In the search for a clear signal of underlining BFKL dynamics in high-energy diffractive processes the Mueller-Tang jet observables have been proven to be a particularly fortunate choice.
Despite unavoidable unperturbative effects that can affect the rapidity gap signature fair agreement was found between the BFKL predictions and the Tevatron data.
On the experimental side it is clear that the higher LHC energy promise a further BFKL enhancement while, as for the theoretical analysis, the obvious path forward is to complete the NLO predictions incorporating also the NLO impact factors.
The inclusion of the NLO vertex passes through the implementation of the momentum space BFKL eigenfunctions, which represent a novelty in this context, and introduce several technical complications that hinder the theoretical analysis.

We present progress toward the theoretical understanding of BFKL effects in exclusive Mueller-Tang jet processes. Here dijets are produced with a large rapidity gap resulting from single Pomeron exchange. Theoretically this requires a more complicated description, but recent progress in understanding the combination of the NLL kernel and the NLO impact factors have made a theoretical prediction possibly that is consistent with current results from the LHC.