As the signature manifestation of QCD in high-energy nuclear collisions jet production provides essential tests of that theory. But eventwise jet reconstruction can be complex and susceptible to measurement bias. And QCD theory in the form of Monte Carlo models of elementary collisions can also be complex and difficult to test. Therefore, it may be beneficial to construct a simple static model of jet production in $p$-$p$ collisions to facilitate data comparisons and model tests. QCD is a logarithmic theory featuring variations with an energy scale as $\log (s/s_0)$. Jet-related data such as parton fragmentation functions plotted on logarithmic rapidities exhibit self-similar scaling behavior which admits an accurate parametrization with only a few parameters. In this study we extend that method to construct a parametrization of jet (scattered parton) momentum spectra based on measured logarithmic jet production trends. The parametrization is established with ISR and $\mathrm{S}p\overline{p}\mathrm{S}$ jet data and then extrapolated for comparison with Tevatron and LHC jet data. The jet production model from the present study is also combined with a parametrization of $p$-$\overline{p}$ fragmentation functions to predict the minimum-bias jet fragment contribution to hadron $p_t$ spectra. The prediction is compared with published $p$-$p$ spectrum data to test the self-consistency of the model.

• Received 14 March 2014

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.89.094011