The devitrification of initially amorphous Ni80B20 has been studied by x-ray-absorption spectroscopy as a function of the annealing temperature. It is found that the full width at half maximum ~FWHM! of the main absorption peak at '850 eV is sensitive to the degree of amorphization of the specimen. The initial FWHM of 2.51 eV for the homogeneous amorphous Ni80B20 decreases to a value of 2.12 eV for the crystalline final mixture of Ni and Ni3B. In an intermediate, partially devitrified state, a FWHM of 2.30 eV is measured, which supports an earlier identification of pure amorphous nickel. ; This work has been partially supported by BESSY-EU Project No. CHGE-CT93-0027 of the Human Capital and Mobility programme of the European Union. ; Peer reviewed
We model a situation in which the voters are or not fooled by the local or/and the federal government, and their capability of accounting the behavior of the governments, when they are not fully informed about which are services/goods that each level have to provide, and hence they are not able to know which of the levels have failed, the federal or the local, if only one has failed. Also, we do not assume that the voters know the type of the parties, bad or good —willing to divert resources or not, roughly—.We propose two mechanisms, one in which the voters have information about the competencies, the other when not. Expectably, in the first situation from the mechanism it is possible to infer the types of all the parties, but in the second only in rare situations it reveals the types of all the parties. However, if there are good parties in both levels of governance, the second mechanism select two good parties. That is, there is accountability, although not that perfect as it is possible in the .rst situation. In the other situations, that is, if in only one level there are good parties, or in both levels all the parties are of bad type, the mechanism predicts the obvious result: Or it will be only one good party in o¢ ce, not knowing which one is good and which one is bad, or it will be only bad parties in office. Strikingly enough, in some situations, the voters may also learn, through the mechanism, the competencies. ; Modelamos en este trabajo una situación en la cual los votantes son o no engañados por el gobierno, sea local o federal, y, dadas estas circunstancias, su capacidad para requerir rendición de cuentas por medio del voto, cuando los votantes no tienen información de el/los bien/es que son proveídos por cada uno de los niveles de gobierno. Tampoco asumimos que los votantes conocen el tipo de los partidos, buenos o malos —dispuestos a no desviar recursos o dispuestos a ello—. Proponemos dos mecanismos de voto, uno en el que los votantes sí conocen las respectivas competencias, y otro en el que no. Como era de esperarse, en el primer mecanismo es posible, por medio del voto, inferir el tipo de los partidos, pero en el segundo, en general, sólo en raras circunstancias esto es posible. Sin embargo, si hay más de un partido de tipo bueno en cada nivel, esto es posible. En otras situaciones, esto es, si sólo en un nivel hay partidos de tipo bueno, o en ambos niveles sólo hay partidos de tipo malo, obtenemos el resultado obvio: Habrá siempre un partido bueno y uno malo en el gobierno, o bien habrá siempre partidos de tipo malo en el gobierno. Sorprendentemente, en algunas situaciones, los votantes, por medio del mecanismo pueden también inferir las respectivas competencias.
The high-energy tails of charged- and neutral-current Drell-Yan processes provide important constraints on the light quark and anti-quark parton distribution functions (PDFs) in the large-x region. At the same time, short-distance new physics effects such as those encoded by the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) would induce smooth distortions to the same high-energy Drell-Yan tails. In this work, we assess for the first time the interplay between PDFs and EFT effects for high-mass Drell-Yan processes at the LHC and quantify the impact that the consistent joint determination of PDFs and Wilson coefficients has on the bounds derived for the latter. We consider two well-motivated new physics scenarios: 1) electroweak oblique corrections (Ŵ , Ŷ) and 2) four-fermion interactions potentially related to the LHCb anomalies in R(K(*)). We account for available Drell-Yan data, both from unfolded cross sections and from searches, and carry out dedicated projections for the High-Luminosity LHC. Our main finding is that, while the interplay between PDFs and EFT effects remains moderate for the current dataset, it will become a significant challenge for EFT analyses at the HL-LHC. ; We thank Emanuele Mereghetti, Tevong You and Celine Degrande for insightful discussions about the project. We thank Claude Duhr and Bernhard Mistlberger for kindly sending us the NNLO and N3LO QCD corrections for the Drell-Yan invariant and transverse mass distributions. We thank Andrea Wulzer and Lorenzo Ricci for benchmarking the charged current K-factors and for suggesting to add the results obtained by using conservative PDFs. M. U. and Z. K. are supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation Programme (grant agreement n.950246). M. U. and S. I. are supported by the Royal Society grant RGF/EA/180148. The work of M. U. is also funded by the Royal Society grant DH150088. The work of J. R. is partially supported by the Netherlands Science Council (NWO). The work of A. G. has received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF) through the Eccellenza Professorial Fellowship "Flavor Physics at the High Energy Frontier" project number 186866, and is also partially supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, grant agreement 833280 (FLAY). The work of J. M. is supported by the Sims Fund Studentship. The work of M. M. is supported by the University of Cambridge Schiff Foundation studentship. C. V. is supported by the STFC grant ST/R504671/1. M. U., S. I., Z. K., J. M. and M. M. are partially supported by STFC consolidated grants ST/P000681/1, ST/T000694/1.
We present a determination of the strong coupling constant α s (m Z ) based on the NNPDF3.1 determination of parton distributions, which for the first time includes constraints from jet production, top-quark pair differential distributions, and the Zp T distributions using exact NNLO theory. Our result is based on a novel extension of the NNPDF methodology – th e correlated replica method – which allows for a simultaneous determination of α s and the PDFs with all correlations between them fully taken into account. We study in detail all relevant sources of experimental, methodological and theoretical uncertainty. At NNLO we find α s (m Z ) = 0.1185 ± 0. 0005 (exp) ± 0. 0001 (meth) , showing that methodological uncertainties are negligible. We conservatively estimate the theoretical uncertainty due to missing higher order QCD corrections (N 3 LO and beyond) from half the shift between the NLO and NNLO α s values, finding Δαsth=0.0011. ; E. S. and J. R. are supported by an European Research Council Starting Grant "PDF4BSM". J. R. is also supposed by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The work of Z.K. is supported by the European Research Council Consolidator Grant "NNLOforLHC2" and by the Executive Research Agency (REA) of the European Commission under the Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2012-316704 (HiggsTools). S. C. is supported by the HICCUP ERC Consolidator Grant (614577). S. C. and S. F. are supported by the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation Programme (Grant agreement no 740006). R. D. B and L. D. D. are supported by UK STFC Grants ST/L000458/1 and ST/P0000630/1.
We present a new set of parton distributions, NNPDF3.1, which updates NNPDF3.0, the first global set of PDFs determined using a methodology validated by a closure test. The update is motivated by recent progress in methodology and available data, and involves both. On the methodological side, we now parametrize and determine the charm PDF alongside the light-quark and gluon ones, thereby increasing from seven to eight the number of independent PDFs. On the data side, we now include the D0 electron and muon W asymmetries from the final Tevatron dataset, the complete LHCb measurements of W and Z production in the forward region at 7 and 8 TeV, and new ATLAS and CMS measurements of inclusive jet and electroweak boson production. We also include for the first time top-quark pair differential distributions and the transverse momentum of the Z bosons from ATLAS and CMS. We investigate the impact of parametrizing charm and provide evidence that the accuracy and stability of the PDFs are thereby improved. We study the impact of the new data by producing a variety of determinations based on reduced datasets. We find that both improvements have a significant impact on the PDFs, with some substantial reductions in uncertainties, but with the new PDFs generally in agreement with the previous set at the one-sigma level. The most significant changes are seen in the light-quark flavor separation, and in increased precision in the determination of the gluon. We explore the implications of NNPDF3.1 for LHC phenomenology at Run II, compare with recent LHC measurements at 13 TeV, provide updated predictions for Higgs production cross-sections and discuss the strangeness and charm content of the proton in light of our improved dataset and methodology. The NNPDF3.1 PDFs are delivered for the first time both as Hessian sets, and as optimized Monte Carlo sets with a compressed number of replicas. ; V. B., N. H., J. R., L. R. and E. S. are supported by an European Research Council Starting Grant "PDF4BSM". R. D. B. and L. D. D. are supported by the UK STFC grants ST/L000458/1 and ST/P000630/1. L. D. D. is supported by the Royal Society, Wolfson Research Merit Award, grant WM140078. S. F. is supported by the European Research Council under the Grant Agreement 740006NNNPDFERC-2016-ADG/ERC-2016-ADG. E. R. N. is supported by the UK STFC grant ST/M003787/1. S. C. is supported by the HICCUP ERC Consolidator grant (614577). M. U. is supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship and partially supported by the STFC grant ST/L000385/1. S. F and Z. K. are supported by the Executive Research Agency (REA) of the European Commission under the Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2012-316704 (HiggsTools). A. G. is supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 659128-NEXTGENPDF.
We present a new set of parton distributions, NNPDF3.1, which updates NNPDF3.0, the first global set of PDFs determined using a methodology validated by a closure test. The update is motivated by recent progress in methodology and available data, and involves both. On the methodological side, we now parametrize and determine the charm PDF alongside the light quarks and gluon ones, thereby increasing from seven to eight the number of independent PDFs. On the data side, we now include the D0 electron and muon W asymmetries from the final Tevatron dataset, the complete LHCb measurements of W and Z production in the forward region at 7 and 8 TeV, and new ATLAS and CMS measurements of inclusive jet and electroweak boson production. We also include for the first time top-quark pair differential distributions and the transverse momentum of the Z bosons from ATLAS and CMS. We investigate the impact of parametrizing charm and provide evidence that the accuracy and stability of the PDFs are thereby improved. We study the impact of the new data by producing a variety of determinations based on reduced datasets. We find that both improvements have a significant impact on the PDFs, with some substantial reductions in uncertainties, but with the new PDFs generally in agreement with the previous set at the one sigma level. The most significant changes are seen in the light-quark flavor separation, and in increased precision in the determination of the gluon. We explore the implications of NNPDF3.1 for LHC phenomenology at Run II, compare with recent LHC measurements at 13 TeV, provide updated predictions for Higgs production cross-sections and discuss the strangeness and charm content of the proton in light of our improved dataset and methodology. The NNPDF3.1 PDFs are delivered for the first time both as Hessian sets, and as optimized Monte Carlo sets with a compressed number of replicas. ; V. B., N. H., J. R., L. R. and E. S. are supported by an European Research Council Starting Grant "PDF4BSM". R. D. B. and L. D. D. are supported by the UK STFC grants ST/L000458/1 and ST/P000630/1. L. D. D. is supported by the Royal Society, Wolfson Research Merit Award, grant WM140078. S. F. is supported by the European Research Council under the Grant Agreement 740006NNNPDFERC-2016-ADG/ERC-2016-ADG. E. R. N. is supported by the UK STFC grant ST/M003787/1. S. C. is supported by the HICCUP ERC Consolidator grant (614577). M. U. is supported by a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship and partially supported by the STFC grant ST/L000385/1. S. F and Z. K. are supported by the Executive Research Agency (REA) of the European Commission under the Grant Agreement PITN-GA-2012-316704 (HiggsTools). A. G. is supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 659128-NEXTGENPDF.
In response to the 2013 Update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the Future Circular Collider (FCC) study was launched, as an international collaboration hosted by CERN. This study covers a highest-luminosity high-energy lepton collider (FCC-ee) and an energy-frontier hadron collider (FCC-hh), which could, successively, be installed in the same 100 km tunnel. The scientific capabilities of the integrated FCC programme would serve the worldwide community throughout the 21st century. The FCC study also investigates an LHC energy upgrade, using FCC-hh technology. This document constitutes the second volume of the FCC Conceptual Design Report, devoted to the electron-positron collider FCC-ee. After summarizing the physics discovery opportunities, it presents the accelerator design, performance reach, a staged operation scenario, the underlying technologies, civil engineering, technical infrastructure, and an implementation plan. FCC-ee can be built with today's technology. Most of the FCC-ee infrastructure could be reused for FCC-hh. Combining concepts from past and present lepton colliders and adding a few novel elements, the FCC-ee design promises outstandingly high luminosity. This will make the FCC-ee a unique precision instrument to study the heaviest known particles (Z, W and H bosons and the top quark), offering great direct and indirect sensitivity to new physics. ; European Union [654305, 764879, 730871, 777563]; FP7 [312453] ; Open access article ; This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at repository@u.library.arizona.edu.
Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research ; Austrian Science Fund ; Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique ; Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science ; CERN ; Chinese Academy of Sciences ; Ministry of Science and Technology ; National Natural Science Foundation of China ; Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS) ; Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport ; Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus ; Ministry of Education and Research ; European Regional Development Fund, Estonia ; Academy of Finland ; Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture ; Helsinki Institute of Physics ; Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules / CNRS, France ; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives / CEA, France ; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung, Germany ; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany ; Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany ; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece ; National Scientific Research Foundation, Hungary ; National Office for Research and Technology, Hungary ; Department of Atomic Energy, India ; Department of Science and Technology, India ; Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran ; Science Foundation, Ireland ; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy ; Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Republic of Korea ; World Class University program of NRF, Republic of Korea ; Lithuanian Academy of Sciences ; CINVESTAV ; CONACYT ; SEP ; UASLP-FAI ; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand ; Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission ; Ministry of Science and Higher Education, Poland ; National Science Centre, Poland ; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal ; JINR, Dubna ; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ; Federal Agency of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation ; Russian Academy of Sciences ; Russian Foundation for Basic Research ; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia ; Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Spain ; Desarrollo e Innovacion and Programa Consolider-Ingenio, Spain ; ETH Board ; ETH Zurich ; PSI ; SNF ; UniZH ; Canton Zurich ; SER ; National Science Council, Taipei ; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics ; Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology of Thailand ; Special Task Force for Activating Research ; National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand ; Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey ; Turkish Atomic Energy Authority ; Science and Technology Facilities Council, U.K. ; US Department of Energy ; US National Science Foundation ; Marie-Curie programme ; European Research Council ; EPLANET (European Union) ; Leventis Foundation ; A. P. Sloan Foundation ; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium) ; Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium) ; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of Czech Republic ; Council of Science and Industrial Research, India ; Compagnia di San Paolo (Torino) ; HOMING PLUS programme of Foundation for Polish Science - EU ; Regional Development Fund ; Thalis programme - EU-ESF ; Aristeia programme - EU-ESF ; Greek NSRF ; Ministry of Education and ResearchSF0690030s09 ; Measurements are presented of the associated production of a W boson and a charm-quark jet (W + c) in pp collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. The analysis is conducted with a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 5 fb(-1), collected by the CMS detector at the LHC. W boson candidates are identified by their decay into a charged lepton (muon or electron) and a neutrino. The W + c measurements are performed for charm-quark jets in the kinematic region p(T)(jet) > 25 GeV, vertical bar eta(jet)vertical bar W + c + X) x B (W -> lv) = 107.7 +/- 3.3 (stat.) +/- 6.9 (syst.) pb (p(T)(l) > 25 GeV) and sigma (pp -> W + c + X) x B (W -> lv) = 84.1 +/- 2.0 (stat.) +/- 4.9 (syst.) pb (p(T)(l) > 35 GeV), and the cross section ratios sigma(pp -> W+ + (c) over bar + X)/sigma(pp -> W- + c + X) = 0.954 +/- 0.025 (stat.) +/- 0.004 (syst.) (p(T)(l) > 25 GeV) and sigma(pp -> W+ + (c) over bar + X)/sigma(pp -> W- + c + X) = 0.938 +/- 0.019 (stat.) +/- 0.006 (syst.) (p(T)(l) > 35 GeV). Cross sections and cross section ratios are also measured differentially with respect to the absolute value of the pseudorapidity of the lepton from the W-boson decay. These are the first measurements from the LHC directly sensitive to the strange quark and antiquark content of the proton. Results are compared with theoretical predictions and are consistent with the predictions based on global fits of parton distribution functions.
Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research ; Austrian Science Fund ; Belgian Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique ; Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; Bulgarian Ministry of Education and Science ; CERN ; Chinese Academy of Sciences ; Ministry of Science and Technology ; National Natural Science Foundation of China ; Colombian Funding Agency (COLCIENCIAS) ; Croatian Ministry of Science, Education and Sport ; Research Promotion Foundation, Cyprus ; Ministry of Education and Research ; European Regional Development Fund, Estonia ; Academy of Finland ; Finnish Ministry of Education and Culture ; Helsinki Institute of Physics ; Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules/CNRS ; Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives/CEA, France ; Bundesministerium fur Bildung und Forschung ; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Germany ; General Secretariat for Research and Technology, Greece ; National Scientific Research Foundation ; National Innovation Office, Hungary ; Department of Atomic Energy ; Department of Science and Technology, India ; Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics, Iran ; Science Foundation, Ireland ; Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Italy ; Korean Ministry of Education, Science and Technology ; World Class University program of NRF, Republic of Korea ; Lithuanian Academy of Sciences ; CINVESTAV ; CONACYT ; SEP ; UASLP-FAI ; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, New Zealand ; Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission ; Ministry of Science and Higher Education ; National Science Centre, Poland ; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia, Portugal ; JINR, Dubna ; Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation ; Federal Agency of Atomic Energy of the Russian Federation, Russian Academy of Sciences ; Russian Foundation for Basic Research ; Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Serbia ; Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion, Desarrollo e Innovacion and Programa Consolider-Ingenio, Spain ; ETH Board ; ETH Zurich ; PSI ; SNF ; UniZH ; Canton Zurich ; SER ; National Science Council, Taipei ; Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics ; Institute for the Promotion of Teaching Science and Technology of Thailand ; Special Task Force for Activating Research ; National Science and Technology Development Agency of Thailand ; Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey ; Turkish Atomic Energy Authority ; Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK ; US Department of Energy ; US National Science Foundation ; Marie-Curie programme ; European Research Council ; EPLANET (European Union) ; Leventis Foundation ; A. P. Sloan Foundation ; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium) ; Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium) ; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of Czech Republic ; Council of Science and Industrial Research, India ; Compagnia di San Paolo (Torino) ; HOMING PLUS programme of Foundation for Polish Science ; EU, Regional Development Fund ; EU-ESF ; Greek NSRF ; Ministry of Education and ResearchSF0690030s09 ; Measurements of the differential and double-differential Drell-Yan cross sections are presented using an integrated luminosity of 4.5 (4.8) fb(-1) in the dimuon (dielectron) channel of proton-proton collision data recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC at = 7 TeV. The measured inclusive cross section in the Z-peak region (60-120 GeV) is sigma(aa) = 986.4 +/- 0.6 (stat.) +/- 5.9 (exp. syst.) +/- 21.7 (th. syst.) +/- 21.7 (lum.) pb for the combination of the dimuon and dielectron channels. Differential cross sections d sigma/dm for the dimuon, dielectron, and combined channels are measured in the mass range 15 to 1500 GeV and corrected to the full phase space. Results are also presented for the measurement of the double-differential cross section d(2)sigma/dm d|y| in the dimuon channel over the mass range 20 to 1500 GeV and absolute dimuon rapidity from 0 to 2.4. These measurements are compared to the predictions of perturbative QCD calculations at next-to-leading and next-to-next-to-leading orders using various sets of parton distribution functions.
BMWF (Austria) ; FWF (Austria) ; FNRS (Belgium) ; FWO (Belgium) ; Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) ; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) ; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ; MEYS (Bulgaria) ; CERN ; CAS (China) ; MoST (China) ; NSFC (China) ; COLCIENCIAS (Colombia) ; MSES (Croatia) ; RPF (Cyprus) ; MoER (Estonia) ; ERDF (Estonia) ; Academy of Finland (Finland) ; MEC (Finland) ; HIP (Finland) ; CEA (France) ; CNRS/IN2P3 (France) ; BMBF (Germany) ; DFG (Germany) ; HGF (Germany) ; GSRT (Greece) ; OTKA (Hungary) ; NKTH (Hungary) ; DAE (India) ; DST (India) ; IPM (Iran) ; SFI (Ireland) ; INFN (Italy) ; NRF (Republic of Korea) ; WCU (Republic of Korea) ; LAS (Lithuania) ; CINVESTAV (Mexico) ; CONACYT (Mexico) ; SEP (Mexico) ; UASLP-FAI (Mexico) ; MSI (New Zealand) ; PAEC (Pakistan) ; MSHE (Poland) ; NSC (Poland) ; FCT (Portugal) ; JINR (Armenia) ; JINR (Belarus) ; JINR (Georgia) ; JINR (Ukraine) ; JINR (Uzbekistan) ; MON (Russia) ; RosAtom (Russia) ; RAS (Russia) ; RFBR (Russia) ; MSTD (Serbia) ; SEIDI (Spain) ; CPAN (Spain) ; Swiss Funding Agencies (Switzerland) ; NSC (Taipei) ; ThEPCenter (Thailand) ; IPST (Thailand) ; NSTDA (Thailand) ; TUBITAK (Turkey) ; TAEK (Turkey) ; NASU (Ukraine) ; STFC (United Kingdom) ; DOE (USA) ; NSF (USA) ; Marie-Curie programme (European Union) ; European Research Council (European Union) ; EPLANET (European Union) ; Leventis Foundation ; A.P. Sloan Foundation ; Alexander von Humboldt Foundation ; Belgian Federal Science Policy Office ; Fonds pour la Formation a la Recherche dans l'Industrie et dans l'Agriculture (FRIA-Belgium) ; Agentschap voor Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie (IWT-Belgium) ; Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) of Czech Republic ; Council of Science and Industrial Research, India ; Compagnia di San Paolo (Torino) ; HOMING PLUS programme of Foundation for Polish Science ; EU, Regional Development Fund ; Thalis programme ; Aristeia programme ; EU-ESF ; Greek NSRF ; MoER (Estonia)SF0690030s09 ; A measurement is presented of the ratio of the inclusive 3-jet cross section to the inclusive 2-jet cross section as a function of the average transverse momentum, , of the two leading jets in the event. The data sample was collected during 2011 at a proton-proton centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0 fb(-1). The strong coupling constant at the scale of the Z boson mass is determined to be alpha(S)(M-Z) = 0.1148 +/- 0.0014 (exp.) +/- 0.0018 (PDF) +/- 0.0050 (theory), by comparing the ratio in the range 0.42 < 1.39 TeV to the predictions of perturbative QCD at next-to-leading order. This is the first determination of alpha(S)(M-Z) from measurements at momentum scales beyond 0.6 TeV. The predicted ratio depends only indirectly on the evolution of the parton distribution functions of the proton such that this measurement also serves as a test of the evolution of the strong coupling constant. No deviation from the expected behaviour is observed.