TMD Evolution and Multi-Jet Merging

The theoretical description of the physics of multi-jets in hadronic collisions at high energies is based on merging methods, which combine short-timescale production of jets with long-timescale evolution of partonic showers. We point out potential implications of the evolution of transverse momentum dependent (TMD) distributions on the structure of multi-jet states at high energies, and in particular on the theoretical systematics associated with multi-jet merging. To analyze this, we propose a new merging methodology, and illustrate its impact by comparing our theoretical results with experimental measurements for Z-boson + jets production at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).