On jet mass distributions in Z+jet and dijet processes at the LHC

The mass distribution of jets produced in hard processes at the LHC plays an important role in several jet substructure related studies involving both Standard Model and BSM physics, especially in the context of boosted heavy particle searches. We compute analytically the jet-mass distribution for both Z+jet and dijet processes, for QCD jets defined in the anti-κ t algorithm with an arbitrary radius R, to next-to-leading logarithmic accuracy and match our resummed calculation to full leading-order results. We note the important role played by initial state radiation (ISR) and non-global logarithms explicitly computed here for the first time for hadron collider observables, as well as the jet radius dependence of these effects. We also compare our results to standard Monte Carlo event generators and discuss directions for further studies and phenomenology. © 2012 SISSA.