Transverse momentum distributions with recoil-free jets

Transverse momentum dependent distributions (TMDs) describe the internal structure of hadrons with a high level of detail, and are universal ingredients of cross sections in collision processes where transverse momenta are measured. This thesis proposes the extraction of TMDs using jets, exploring alternative recoil-free definitions. By collectively describing a spray of hadrons as one object, jets are excellent proxies of the highly energetic quarks and gluons produced in a hard collision. Eliminating recoil, a shift of the jet axis in the transverse direction induced by soft radiation, mitigates contamination from other jets and the initial state, promising a cleaner extraction of TMDs from jets. The thesis reviews the soft and collinear limit of Quantum Chromodynamics that underpins factorization, with particular attention to Soft Collinear Effective Theory, as well as the basis of TMD and jet physics. It then extensively discusses two collider processes aimed at the study of TMDs: fragmentation of hadrons inside jets and jet production in deep inelastic scattering. In both applications, recoil-free jets are shown to drastically simplify the factorization framework, leading to precise numerical predictions. A similar investigation is also performed using jet grooming, instead of recoil-free jets, to suppress the effect of soft radiation. The comparison reveals that the soft drop jet groomer trades the simplicity of the factorization framework for a stronger and more flexible mitigation of soft contamination.