A comparison of BFKL and NLO+PS QCD predictions for Mueller-Navelet jets at hadron colliders

We perform a Monte Carlo analysis of a set of Mueller-Navelet jet observables that are designed to probe fixed multiplicity final states. We compare the BFKL results with a NLO QCD calculation matched to parton showering. We observe that at current collider energies and with realistic experimental cuts, both approaches yield similar results. This demonstrates the reliability of the BFKL techniques at pre-asymptotic center-of-mass energies. Differences emerge when the final state multiplicity of minijets is increased. To make these differences more pronounced, it would be necessary to increase the final state multiplicities and to relax some of the experimental cuts in future LHC data.